Turn and Face the Stranger
by Ivette Boveda
Summary: Charlie finds a mysterious drawing in the garage. What Pandora's box of secrets,lies & betrayals lie with in? Will it tear the 3 Eppes men apart?Note:Chs 1 thr.70 written b4 Running man & Protest.Whole story written before S2 finale aired.Last Chapter UP!
1. Chapters 1 thr 5

**2005**

Charlie was looking for some old textbook from his Princeton days, in the garage, when he found a sketch. It seemed to be of Don as a little boy playing in the sand. His mother could draw some, but not at the level this sketch was at.

"Where did it come from" he wondered "And why is it in the garage?"

He went to ask Alan about it.

"Look what I found, dad! Where did you guys get it?"

"Where did you get it?" Alan asked, trying to sound casual.

"In the garage"

"That was uh...birthday present for your mother."

"Then why did she have it in the garage?" This did not make sense to Charlie.

"I dunno. Maybe she lost it." Alan shrugged.

"But mom kept stuff like this in a special box" Charlie argued. Right then, his cell rang. It was Don, asking for his help on a case. David was to pick him up.

"I'm gonna show this to Don." the mathematician said.

Alan bit his tongue.

**1975**

Margaret took Donnie out to play in the park and sat on neighboring benches with a man with intense dark eyes, black, curly hair, and a large nose. She, watching the boy, and he sketching with a strict intensity that she could not help but notice.

"For you" he said after a while with a grin. It was a sketch of Donnie playing in the sand.

"This is wonderful! Thank you!"

"Could I draw you?"

"I ah...I need to go soon" she said, uncomfortably.

"Gimme my shovel!" she heard Don yell at another little boy.

"Excuse me!" she ran to defuse the situation.

9998989899999999999988

Margaret went to the supermarket the next morning to buy the week's groceries. To her annoyance, Alan was going to work late that evening, again, so it would just be her and Donnie for dinner. She loved her son, but a person liked to have adult conversations once in a while. The little boy wouldn't be able to provide that for another decade or two. Suddenly, Margaret saw the artist from the day before, who had given her the drawing of Donnie. He held, in his hand, a gallon of milk.

"Here." He handed it to her. Margaret noticed that the artist had black, curly hair down to his shoulders. "It has a later expiration date than the one in your cart"

" Uh .Thank you!" She loved his smile. It lit up his whole face.

"Where's your son?"

"At school He's in the morning Kindergarten."

"I see that you resolved that situation about the shovel" he teased.

"Donnie's got a bit of a temper about him. One just needs to be firm." Margaret explained. She found Don's temper to be trying at times.

"Can you cook?"

"Yeah."

"Perhaps you could help me then?" he asked in a charming way.

2005

During a lull in activity, Charlie showed Don the picture.

"What's this?" he asked.

"I found it in the garage. It's you in the sandbox of a park." Charlie had seen pictures of Don as a little boy. "Dad claims he got it as a birthday present for mom"

"Claims?"

"Mom would never let something like this get lost in the garage!" Charlie insisted. There was something about this picture "Do you remember posing for a sketch?"

"I only remember posing for photos." Don shrugged.

**1975**

"What do you wanna make?" Margaret asked.

"Beef stew"

"Well, you'll need to get beef chuck and have the butcher chop it up for you."

"Could you ask him for me?"

"Why?"

"Because with you, he'll do a better job" he said with charm.

She gave him all the advice he needed, even writing down some instructions, and then they went their separate ways.

**2005**

the next day, Charlie went to see a friend of his in the art department, named Sam.

"What can you tell me about the skill of the person who did this?" he asked him.

"Well...it's a brilliant copy of David Lev's style." Sam was not impressed.

"You mean the famous artist?" Charlie asked.

"He was a young prodigy like you, but in art." Sam smiled. "Funnily enough, last week when I went to your math for non math majors class, your style of speaking to an audience reminded me of his."

"That's interesting" Charlie shrugged. He thought nothing of it.

**1975**

Margaret found herself thinking about the handsome stranger as she and Donnie had their dinners.

"Fred is dumb! He only wants to use red blocks!" the boy complained to his mother.

"Then use the other ones" she told him.

Just then, Alan came home.

"Daddy!" Don ran to his father. Margaret gave the man a kiss.

"How was work, sweetie?"

"Hard and long"

Alan tucked the boy into bed sometime later, and the couple watched the Tonight Show. Margaret wanted to talk, but Alan just wanted to relax.

**2005**

Sam looked at his watch "I'm sorry, man, but I've got class in two minutes."

"It's okay. We can talk later" Charlie took the drawing and returned to his office.

As Sam walked to his class, it stuck him that Charlie looked like a younger version of David Lev.

**1975**

Margaret saw the handsome stranger at the farmer's market the next week, wearing jeans, and a shirt that said 'Reality is overated.

"Nice to see ya again!" he said.

"Oh hi!"

"The beef stew came out great! No one died!" he told her.

"That's uh..wonderful."

"I'm David, and you are?"

"Margaret" she said without thinking.

"I'm not sure which of these strawberries would be better to buy."

"Take those!" she pointed to some in the back.

Margaret found herself shopping with him, and they had a most engaging conversation. He talked rather fast, but was very expressive. Then the conversation turned personal.

"My father was a math professor at USC" he told her." untilretiring last year."

"What do you do?"

"I'm an artist. You?"

"Homemaker" she said

"Do you like to draw or paint?" He found himself drawn to Margaret.

"I doodle sometimes" she shrugged. It was hard to indulge in the hobby with a five year old around.

"Would you be interested in lessons?"

**2005**

"So what did you find out about the mysterious drawing?" Amita asked over lunch.

"Sam said that it whoever did it copied the style of David Lev"

"David Lev? I've got copies of his works at my apartment." Amita looked at the drawing again. "Come to think of it, this does remind me of a David Lev work."

**1975**

Margaret began to take drawing lessons from David at a park. She justified not telling Alan by saying to herselft hat he'd get jealous and overreact.

One day, Alan found her sketchbook, and complimented her "Your drawings are getting better!"

"Thank you honey!" she said, trying to sound pleased rather than nervous.. "With Donnie in school, I've got more time to practice."

**2005**

"I talked to a friend of mine in the art department today" Charlie told his father over dinner. Alan inwardly cursed his son's curiousity.

"What did he say?" Alan kept his voice even and sipped his beer.

"That whoever did it copied the stlye of David Lev."

"Really?"

"How did you get this drawing?" Charlie asked.

"I was with your brother in the park and saw this young man drawing. I paid him a few bucks to do a sketch of your brother. I gave that to your mother in addition to a necklace for her birthday."

"Okay..." Charlie still wanted to look into this.

**1975**

"You seemed quiet tonight" Alan said in the car, on the way home from having dinner with friends.

"Really?" Margaret had found herself thinking about David.

"Yeah."

"Just one of those days" she shrugged.

Over the next few weeks, Alan noticed that Margaret's way of making love to him was changing. She started to do new things in the bedroom. He didn't mind how they felt and figured that she read tips from some magazine or book. Three months later, for quite a few days, she seemed out of sorts, stopped her drawing, and snapped at him.

**2005**

"There's more to this drawing than dad is telling us!" Charlie insisted to Don during a visit to his apartment.

"You over thinking this, man!" Don said despite the fact that part of him had a theory that a pretty, younger woman had done the drawing for Alan, and that was why it was hidden in the garage. "Let me watch the movie!"

"Okay" Charlie said with a sulk, but his mind was still on the drawing.

**1975**

Margaret looked at the two month old, and in her heart of hearts, knew that David was the father. The baby had his exact same eyes, nose, and hair. They had broken up before she had found out she was pregnant. She feed the baby, put him in his crib to sleep, and went to look at her secret sketchbook. Then, she looked at a nude she did of David, and remembered the circumstances under which she drew it. Their affair had already started at that point.

_"I'd like to draw you in the nude"_

"Oh?" he asked with a sly look.

"I wanna practice my skills on a man..."

"Sure"

A while later, in bed, he lamented" I wish you could be at my exhibit"

"It's on my husband's birthday!" she reminded him. "Maybe you could be my personal guide to your exhibit? Hmmm?"

**2005**

Charlie went to the basement and the garage to see if he could find anymore clues regarding the drawing. He didn't.

"Charlie?" Alan asked from the doorway of the basement. "What are you doing down there?"

"Looking for an old textbook" Charlie said lamely.

"Dinner's ready! It's gonna get cold!"

"Okay"

**1977**

Alan proudly took eighteen month old Charlie to get his first hair cut. Donnie tagged along to get his own trim.

"Seems like yesterday I gave little Donnie his first trim" the barber said with a smile.

"No!" Charlie squirmed when the barber tried to comb his hair.

"He's got a sensitive scalp." Alan explained.

Charlie moved, complained, and fidgeted so much that the barber had to give up. "Outside of hogtying or sedating him, there's no way to do it"

"Your turn, Donnie" Alan sighed. As they waited for the boy, Alan noticed Charlie staring at the wallpaper, which was geometrical.

"How'd his first trim go?" Margaret asked. When the trio got home.

"He couldn't sit still" Alan told her. "And it didn't help that his scalp is sensitive."

**2005**

"So Don doesn't think anything of the drawing?" Amita asked in a tone of surprise two days later at Charlie's office. "I mean he's an F.B.I agent."

"Yeah." Charlie again stared at it.

Then it hit Amita. What if Alan flirted with some woman, who did this drawing for him? Why else would he be less than forthright about it? Maybe Don thought along the same lines, and didn't want to upset Charlie.

**1979**

"What the hell is this?" Alan threw down her secret sketchbook on their bed. It turned to where she had some nude sketches of David.

"Oh those...I uh...took it upon myself to illustrate some harlequin novel I was reading."

"Bullshit" Alan knew that she didn't read those kinds of books. Who is he? Answer me!"

"Someone I uh..saw at the park and fantasized about." she said. While Margaret knew that this would upset Alan, it would not cause the hurt that telling him about the affair would.

"For someone you only fantasized about, he sure looks a lot like Charlie" he hissed.

**2005**

Alan sighed the next morning as he remembered when things first seemed amiss

_During the last two months of her pregnancy with Charlie, she seemed very nervous and tense. Much more so, than when she was in the last trimester with Donnie._

"What's wrong honey?" he asked with concernas they watched T.V "You seem preoccupied. Did the doctor say something?"

"No!I'm just stressed about the prospect of taking care of two small children rather than one"

"But Don doesn't require the same care the baby will" Alan said. "and he's going to school now"

"I know" she said,but to Alan, Margaret still seemed troubled

TBC


	2. Chapters 6 thr 9

**1979**

"I had a brief affair some years back" she admitted grimly. "But I swear it's long over."

"Like you swore to be faithful on our wedding day?" Alan's eyes glistened with unshed tears, and his face was red with rage. "So Charlie isn't mine, is he?"

Suddenly, the phone rang and she answered it. After listening for bit, she told Alan, "It's your father, he just had a heart attack." Alan ran to get dressed, and Margaret got the name of the hospital. Then, she called her mother to come watch the kids.

**2005**

As he made dinner, Alan found himself haunted by those nude sketches of that man in Margaret's notebook. The drawing had brought it all back.

"Dad?" Don interupted his thoughts. "You okay?"

"Yeah yeah, just thinking"

"Where's Charlie?"

"In the solarium" Alan said. " Tell him that dinner will be ready soon"

Don saw Charlie working at his laptop.

"Dad said to tell you that Dinner will be ready soon."

"Did you ask him about the drawing?" Charlie figured that Don, being a trained and experianced F.B.I agent, could better get the information from Alan.

"No!"

"Aren't you just the little bit curious?"

"I've got more important things on my mind" Don snorted.He didn't want to share his theory with Charlie.

**1979**

Soon, Margaret's mother came.

"The kids are asleep, and I'll call when I can" Margaret said. Then she and Alan left.

The couple drove to the hospital in silence. Their focus was on Alan's father right now. By the time they arrived at the right waiting room, Alan's brother, Robert, and his wife, were there. Thankfully, the heart attack was mild and Alan's father was released from the hospital after a few days, with a strong medical admonishment to eat healthier and exercise.They had a serious conversation about their marriage, once it was seen that his fatherwould recover from his first heart attack.

"What of us?" she asked him tenatively.

"I don't know" he told her. "How can I trust you again?"

"I'll work to reearn your trust"

"I just need time" Alan still loved Margaret, and didn't want the kids to live through a divorce. Charlie didn't ask to be the product of an affair any more than he asked to be a prodigy. Despite what Alan now knew, he still cared for the little boy, who needed a father in his life.

Eventually, Alan agreed to try to make things work and the couple went into marital counseling.

**2005**

"I can't believe Don doesn't want to find out about the drawing!" Charlie said with exasperation to his friend Larry, at the latter's office on Friday.

"Charles," Larry began. "Some things are not meant to be known" He, like Amita and Don, figured that perhaps a woman had given Alan the drawing.

"What are you saying, Larry?"

"Perhaps your brother has his reasons for not pressing the matter" Larry knew that Don would also think that a woman was responsible for the drawing.

"Like what?"

**1980**

Alan found out the identity of Charlie's father one Sunday as he read the paper. After looking at the sports section, he switched over to the arts section and on the first page, saw a large picture of the man Margaret had drawn in the nude. Shocked, he choked on his coffee. Apparently, his name was David Lev and he was a rather well known artist.

"Dad?" Donnie asked with worry. Charlie was too busy staring at his cheerios. Margaret was with a sister, who had just given birth.

"I'm fine, Donnie. Eat your breakfast" Alan said, then thought wryly, "You sure know how to pick'm, Margaret"

**2005**

"Any uh..number of reasons" Larry sidestepped the question

"Like what?" Charlie repeated.

"I've got a class" Larry said tenatively and tried to leave.

"Your next seminar isn't for an hour!" Charlie began to get impatient.

**1980**

"The Cheerios aren't made in a perfect circle" Charlie said suddenly.

"That sure doesn't stop you from eating them" Alan teased.

Later that day, Don's little league team had a game.Charlie and Alan went to see him. The latter hoped that maybe, just maybe, Donnie could get a baseball schlarship. It looked to him like Charlie was going to college sooner rather than latter.

**2005**

"Larry..." Charlie said in a warning tone. After some more badgering, Larry finally told him.

"Perhaps, at ..some level" Larry began, as his gestures became twitchier. "Your brother thinks that a woman drew the sketch."

"Why would he think that?" Charlie, despite his brilliance, could be clueless.

"Because the drawing might have been for your father" Larry gently finished in a whisper.

**1981**

"Donnie, where's your brother?" Margaret asked one summer's day.

"He's practicing basketball." Donnie said. Alan had given Charlie a mini basketball hoop for Christmas.

"Tell him that it's time for lunch"

"Okay" Don reluctantly got up from the couch. He went outside to find Charlie doing some freethrows.

"Mom says that it's time to eat lunch."

"Okay" Charlie kept throwing baskets, but Donnie got the ball from him.

"Come on! Mom'll blame me if you stay out here." Donnie said with annoyance.

"Gimme the ball!" Charlie tried to get it from him. As Donnie teased him with the ball, Margaret got a call, from David.

"Hi! Remember me?" the man tried to sound casual. He had recently seen Margaret at the park with Charlie and Don. Given the younger boy's age, he could not help but wonder.

"Wrong number!" Margaret hung up before he could ask the inevitable question. She sat down to calm herself. It had beensurreal to hear his voice again after a few years.

**2005**

"What?" Charlie finally grasped what his friend meant and his troubled face showed it. "That's impossible. Dad would never..."

"Maybe all they did was talk" Larry said quickly.

"Could you give me a ride?" Charlie asked.

**1981**

David called again the next day, while Alan was at work.

"Margaret..don't hang up!"

"He was born eleven months after we broke it off! Stop calling me!" she insisted from the phone in her bedroom.

"I'm gonna sue for visitation rights, Margaret!" He threatened and was angry that she had kept the boy from him. He, at this point, had a one year old daughter. His wife supported his trying to gain access to the boy.

"How are you gonna prove that he's yours?" she asked sardonically. "It's not as if there is some special test that you and he could take to prove your paternity and if it did exist, it would come out negative!"

"Let's meet and you can show me his birth certificate" he suggested.

"I dont' have anything to prove!" she hung up on him again.

**2005**

"Do you think Dad cheated on mom?" Charlie demanded from a startled Don, who did paperwork.

"What would I think that?"

"Isn't that why you don't wanna ask him about the sketch?"

"Charlie, calm down" Don said. "All I think is that maybe, Dad chatted with some woman one day, when he took me to the park, and she drew him the sketch. He then put it in the garage to avoid having problems with mom."

**1981**

David went to see a lawyer that afternoon and explained the situation.

"Do you have any witnesses to the fact that you two were in a sexual relationship?" he asked him.

"She was and still is married, so we had to be discreet" David said, then asked. "What about blood typing?"

"It's not totally reliable."

"If there was only some special test that could prove beyond a reasonable doubt that I was his father..." David remembered what Margaret had said.

"My job would be so much easier!" the lawyer nodded. "But as things stand now, it's easy for a man to avoid parental responsibility, but much harder to gain it."

"So there's nothing I can do?"

"We can try." the lawyer said. "Are you sure that there is no one who can testify to your involvement with this woman? A clerk at some motel? A server at a favorite restaurant?"

"We mostly met at my studio or home."

"Do you have any assistants, who might have seen her come to visit?"

"I don't use assistants"

"What about someone who might have seen her car parked near where you live or your studio?"

"She made a point to park two blocks away."

After several weeks of worrying, Margaret did not get served, nor did David call again. She breathed a sigh of relief.

TBC


	3. Chapter 10 thr 15

**2005**

"Look, Charlie, I kinda have a full plate right now, so I need to get back to work!" Don used his authoritative tone.

The next day, Charlie cancelled his afternoon classes and went home early to search his father's room, but found nothing that could lead him to any conclusions. Carefully, he tried to put everything back where it was. He scoured the garage and basement a second time, but to no avail.

Again, two days later, he went to visit Don.

"Do you remember mom and dad fighting a lot when you were little?"

"I don't remember back that far" Don sighed.

Finally, Charlie decided ask his father directly.

**1981**

Two months passed, and David went to visit a P.I, that he hired to help him keep track of Charlie.

"He's a math prodigy, so he gets private tutors coming to the house." the P.I , a former F.B.I agent, reported.

"What makes you think he's a math prodigy?"

"This." the man showed him a picture of Charlie studying an math book that was advanced for someone his age. Then he showed David photos of the tutors coming into the house.

"How's his family life?"

"Good, here's a picture of him at his brother'slittleleaguegame" the P.I took out some other pictures "Here, he's biking with his brother."

He showed the pictures to his wife.

"You were right! He does look like you and your dad!" she told him.

"I can't believe I have to hire a P.I to see my own son!" he sighed.

**2005**

"Dad, did a woman draw that picture for you?" Charlie asked him that night at dinner.

"Yes" Alan said, as much as he didn't want to. However, he loathed the idea of telling Charlie about Margaret's affair. The mathematican had adored his mother. She was the only one who could understand him. "But it's not what you think!"

"Really?" Charlie's tone grew sharp as did his facial expression.

" On a Saturday, I took your brother to the park, and this woman, sat next to me. We talked for a while, and she made that sketch of Donnie for me. I hid it in the garage, so your mother would not find it"

"Why didn't you just tell me that before?" Charlie asked with doubt.

**1981**

"Do you really think's it's the best thing to sue for visitation?" David's father, Isaac asked the next day. David was still thinking about doing that.

"He's my son!"

"Why should the boy suffer just because of his parents' indiscretions?" the retired professor realized how devasting the revelation could be to the little boy.

"Dad..."

"Is her husband good to him?"

"He seems to be... but..."

"There's more to being a father than donating sperm." he knew how David was going to finish the sentence.

"I know that dad. That's why I want to take responsibility and be a part of his life!"

"How do you explain to a young boy that the man he calls daddy isn't his father , but a stranger, is?"

"That's a good point" David said grimly.

**2005**

"You were so close to your mother" Alan said.

"I thought we were getting closer" This bugged Charlie, so he pouted.

"I'm sorry."

"Okay..." thankfully for Alan,Charlie believed him.

**1981**

"I guess you're right." David continued. "I'll wait until he's older and there exists some test that could prove it beyond a reasonable doubt"

"Like with DNA?"

"DNA?"

"It contains a person's blueprint." Isaac said. "I had a brilliant friend in the biology department of UCLA who claimed that it could someday be used to solve crime."

"How?"

"Here's how he explained it to me. Let's saw a man murders someone, who, during the struggle, scratches him. The dead cells underthe victim's fingernails could contain his DNA. If the police find him, they could do a test to make a match. I'm sure that this could have many applications in family law, making your paternity lawyer obselete. Children get DNA from their parents."

"Is he working on that?" David asked with hope.

"I doubt it. He's a DNA expert, but science is a long way from that. Most of what I just told you are speculations on his part.

**2005  
**  
Alone in the house, Alan wistfully looked at Margaret's wedding picture, and could feel her presence. So, he began to talk.

"Don't worry, your secret's safe..." he turned to the large photo, as unbeknownst to him, Charlie walked into the living room. Alan was too in the moment to notice. "Charlie will never know about anything. From the first time I held him in my arms, I loved him, and that love never wavered, even when...I found out. "

"Found out what dad?" Charlie demanded with shock. "And what's mom's secret?"

"Charlie!" Alan groaned inwardly and kicked himself. "You're home early."

"Today's my early day!" Charlie glared at his father. "What was mom's secret?"

At that moment, Don came in and could feel the tension.

"What's going on?"

"Mom had a secret!" Charlie told him.

"What?" Don didn't understand.

"I heard Dad talking to Mom's photo. He sa-said th-that he loved me even when he found it out!" The thought that his mother had some deep secret disturbed him to the very core.

Don, right away, knew that that meant. "Oh my God"

**1985**

Micheal, one of Charlie's tutors, decided to take the boy to the exhibition of an artist, who specialized in geometric art. As the two discussed the various paintings in terms of math, David talked with the artist, who was a friend,but stopped listening, when he saw Charlie.

"David?" the artist doubted that he was paying attention.

"I'm sorry,my mind drifted, you were saying?"

After the artist decided to attend to some collectors, David discretly went closer, but at enough of a distance so that neither Charlie nor the tutor would pay him any notice.David could tell that the boy, in how he spoke to the tutor,had the soul of an artist yet the brain of a mathematician and was happy to see him in person.

**2005**

Feeling as if someone had punched him in the stomach, Don sat on the couch. Usually, when he found out secrets like this, they involved other people's familes.

"You know mom's secret?" Charlie asked with eyes of bewilderment.

"Well...dad should be the one to tell you" Don gave his father a look that made Alan realize that Don had figured it out.

After some thinking Alan thought he might as well. Don knew it, and there was no way, at this point, to keep it a secret.

**1989**

David went New Jersey to talk to the new P.I. he had hired the summer before to keep an eye on Charlie. The other P.I had decided to retire a few months ago.

"Your son is taking a full course load at Princeton. Here's the list of his classes, and some pictures."

"So did the whole family go with him?"

"Just his mother. Dad and brother stayed behind."

David thought about what the man said and had an idea.

The next day, the landlady told Margaret that someone had paid her rent for the rest of the school year.

**2005**

"When Don was little, your mother...uh...had a brief affair.Charlie was born a few months later." he told them in the gentlest way he knew how.

"Noooo!" Charlie interupted. He refused to believe it. "Not mom!"

"Charlie..." Don said softly and put a hand on his brother's shoulder.

After sitting down and some thinking, a pale Charlie asked . "So the..oth...drew the sketch for mom?"

"Yes, Charlie"

"Ho-ow ca-can you be sure that he's my father? Statistically..." Charlie could not continue. He was too upset.

"I just do"Alan said, but emphasized. "That doesn't mean I love you any less!"

The mathematician wasn't listening.Emotionally, he had checked out.

"Don't be angry at your mother, Charlie!" Alan continued. "I forgave her a long time ago!"

Unable to cope, Charlie went to the garage and began to work on P vs. NP. He stood there all night and only took a break to call in and have all his classes cancelled for the next several days.

**1990**

Little by little,Margaret wired him back the money,via Western Union.

"Can you believe this?" David complained to his father one day. "I just wanted to help."

"What if her husband had found out?" Isaac countered. "It could have caused problems, and it would not be good for the boy."

**2005**

Around ten in the morning,Alan came in. "I was hoping we could have breakfast and talk"

"Why? So you can lie to me again?" Charlie's voice seeped with anger and cracked with emotion as he roughly put up another board.

"Charlie..."

"Everything you and mom have ever told me has been a lie!" Charlie was almost screaming and his writing took a frantic pace.

"I've always loved you like a son, Charlie!" Alan said. "That's always been true." There's more to being a father than DNA"

"I had a right to know!"

"Charlie..."

"I would rather not enter any conversation right now!"

Sadly, Alan went back into the house.

**1991**

One day, when Charlie was at class, David decided to pay Margaret a visit , see if maybe he could get her to change her mind, at least maybe get the woman to introduce him as a friend of the family,let him get tutoring from Charlie or something else. Then from there, go towards revealing the truth.

Margaret, of course, turned pale, when she saw who was knocking via the peephole. So, She didn't answer the door.

"You're not the one who wanted your fridge fixed?" David knew how gossipy neighbors could be.

"No! I don't want anything fixed!" she yelled back. "You've got the wrong apartment!"

Sighing, he wrote, on a piece of paper and put it under the door "Couldn't you itnroduce me as someone who needs tutoring, or something?"

"No!" the note back to him read.

"I'll call myself something else, wear a fake moustache" he wrote and put it back under the door.

"No! Leave us alone! Charlie is Alan's son!" the paper returned to him.

With frustration, David desisted, at least for now.

**2005**

An hour later, Don came to the house to check up on Charlie.

"How's he doing?" he asked Alan somberly.

"Still in the garage"

"I'll go talk to him"

"Before you do, there's something I've got to say." Alan told him.

"Yeah?"

"Don't be angry at your mother" Alan remembered how early in his marriage, he was a bit of an workaholic.

"I'll go see Charlie" Don didn't want to talk about his mother all his feelings were still raw and rather repressed.

**1991**

The next day, a disapointed David went home to his wife and two children. His daughter was eleven and his son was five.Late at night, the couple talked.

"We were passing notes under the doorway like neighboring prisoners" he grumbled."Because she wouldn't open the door!"

"Did you give her the low key plan?"

"She would have none of it"

"I wonder if her husband knows" she mused.

**2005**

Soon, he was there.

"Hey buddy!" Don tried to sound cheerful despite how disturbing it was to see Charlie in the state he was in. "How's it going?"

Charlie growled. "You knew about this didn't you?"

"I figured it out like seconds before Dad told us!" Don defended himself.

"I should've been told!" Charlie banged his right fist on the chalk board with rage causing apart of thework on itto be blurred.

"How do you break something like that to a kid?" Don tried to be calm.

"What about when I was an adult?" Charlie snapped.

TBC


	4. Chapters 16 thru 21

**1993**

It is a proud day in the Eppes family as The president of Princeton called out Charlie's name. Don's graduation was to be two days later. Years of sacrifice and family separation had added up to this moment. He graduated with highest honors. After the cermony, the family took several shots with Charlie in his graduation gown.

"Let's do one of the two of you!" Margaret told the brothers, who soon started to pose for the camera.

"Charlie! Quit fidgetting!" Alan said as he focused the camera.

Meanwhile, David found out that his wife died on the freeway because of a drunk truck driver.

**2005**

"I'm sure mom meant to get around to it" Don lied

"No she didn't!"Screaming, Charlie banged on the chalkboard again, picked up a book and threw it across the garage with a force that startled Don. Then he continued with N vs NP at a more frantic pace and pressed so hard on the chalk, that he broke it in half.

"Charlie..." Don put a hand on his shoulder.

"I'd rather be alone right now!" Charlie told him acidly.

**1993**

Fall came and Charlie attended Cal Sci to obtain his masters. Not only was it a very prestigious institution, but he could live at home and bike to school.

"How was your day, sweetie?" Margaret asked one day when he returned.

"I attended this brilliant lecture on multi-dimensional theory" Charlie said. "Afterwards, I had the most facinating discussion with the professor."

"That's wonderful." she said, unsure of what Multi Dimensional theory was.

As Charlie worked on some project for school in the dining room, Margaret could not help but be reminded of David. The two made the same facial gestures when deeply focused on something. Discretly, she went to the garage to look for that drawing that David had done all those years ago. She had gotten rid of the drawings she had done of David, but somehow, finding that drawing proved elusive even now.Margaret wanted to get rid of it not only because of what it reminded her of, but someone could find it. This would open a pandora's box, especially if Alan found it.

"Where did I put it?" she muttered then added cynically. "Maybe I should look for something else then I'll find it."

That night,Margaret had a nightmare. There she was,cooking dinner, when Charlie showed her the drawing and asked,

"Where did you get this mom? I found it in the garage"

**2005**  
Just then, Don got a call from work and he had to return. On his way out, he said goodbye to Alan.

"How is he?" he asked the agent.

"The same" Don shrugged.

As he puttered around the house,Alan remembered the first time he really began to suspect Margaret.

One day while waiting in line at the bank, he overheard a middle aged man advise a younger one.

_" With your girlfriend, you'll pick up some new stuff bedroom wise, but under no circumstances try them out on your wife. This'll raise a red flag"_

After his errands at the bank were done, Alan remembered how Margaret did change her routine in the bedroom and she seemed to be at home less when he called . To boot, she bought a bunch of new clothes. 

**1994**

The drawing was in the garage, waiting to be found. Margaret had put it in an envelope, which in turn she put in a bag during her affair with David. Before that it had been in her underwear drawer. Unbeknowst to her, Alan, one saturday morning, had put that bag in some other box to make room for some stuffhe had to put in the garage.

**2005**

Larry worried when he saw the garage full of chalkboards and Charlie working on P vs. NP. When he had heard that Charlie planned to take several days off, this had given Larry a bad feeling. Alan had vaguely said that Charlie was getting through some family issues.

"Charles..." he began.

"I can't be entering any conversation right now!"

**1997**

David visited the cemetary on the anniversary of his wife's death.

"I miss you, every minute of every day." he said to her grave. "I miss your smile, laughter, even the way you used to accuse me of living in my own world. The kids are doing as well as can be expected.Dawn wants to be a doctor, and Marc still dreams of being a writer. They miss you so much! Dad had a heart attack last week..."

As he spoke some more to his wife, the drawing got moved yet again, as Alan made a half hearted effort to organize the garage one week when Margaret had to visit an older brother because his wife got sick.

"I'm gonna go help Larry with something!" Charlie told him on his way out.

"Larry?" Alan wondered who he was.

"Dr. Fleinheart."

"The guy who believes that other dimensions exist?"

"It's multi dimensional theory, dad" Charlie smiled.

Later on, Alan got a much anticipated call from Don. He worked fugitive recovery and seemed to be in habit of losing touch for weeks at a time.

"How are you?" he asked worriedly.

"Fine" Don answered.

"Where the hell have you been?" Alan demanded.

"Some backwater town." Don said. He was tired from two days without sleep and didn't like to get into much detail about his work. Cooper and he had to stay in some barn for a day and a half to catch a fugitive.

"They must have phones there!" he scolded the agent.

"It was hard for me to get to a phone" Don said. He loved the rush that he got from gaining ground on a fugitive, and then cuffing them. "Where's mom?"

"She's at your uncle Nero's. I'll give you the number so you tell her how you are. She's been worried sick."

**2005**

"Perhaps some time outside could be of some help?" Larry suggested in the form of a question.

Charlie just ignored him, and Larry decided to see if he could get Alan to tell him what had driven his friend to this point.

"So...you said that uh...Charlie was dealing with some family issues?" Larry tried to be diplomatic.

"Yeah, that's what I said." Alan, a rather private person,turned on the T.V to avoid any more questions from Larry.

**1997**

A month later, Don got shot in the leg. He got time off, and went home.

"What happened to your leg?" Margaret worridly asked as her eldest got out of the airport shuttlein a partial cast and crutches.

"Was it on the job?" Alan gasped.

"Are you okay?" Charlie worried.

"I fell down in the parking lot of my apartment because some jerk spilled oil" Don lied, and they believed him.

"You're lucky you didn't break your neck!" Alan exclaimed.

"Statistically..." Charlie began.

"Charlie!" Don groaned. Sometimes he had little patience for his brother.

**  
2005**  
For the rest of that day, P vs. NP took over more and more of Charlie's being. Larry could not do much but watch his friend and mentee lose himself.

"Charles...what is it that is troubling you so?" he asked the mathematician, who just answered by telling him some issues related to the problem.

"I was refering to the family issues mentioned by your father..."

"He's not my father!" Charlie blurted out and snapped with repressed emotion.

"That would qualify as a family issue..." Larry said awkardly and with some extra twitchiness.

**1997**

Charlie dominated the dinner conversation by talking about some paper he was working on. He grew so animated, that he even started to write down stuff on a napkin. For once, Don did not mind. Margaret, yet again was reminded of David.

"Charlie, why don't we let Don share about his work?" Alan asked diplomatically.

"It's going fine" the agent said vaguely.

"Couldn't you work fraud or something?" Margaret asked. Bot she and Alan hated that he worked fugitive recovery. Not only did Don lose contact for large blocks of time, but they worried about getting the call.

"I've gotta work where I'm assigned." Don said.

**2005**

Charlie went outside for a bit the next morning to contemplate the koi pond. Larry, after a few hours sleep, was at his side.

"I'm glad to see that you decided to get some fresh air, Charles" he told his friend.

Charlie puttered around in the garden. fter a while, he returned to the garage.

**1997**

Alan was so happy about Don's arrival that he decided to take the family out the dinner the next evening.

"The place has the best sweet and sour shrimp!" Don commented as he took a bite. Charlie took a couple of shrimp, while Don countered by taking some of his brother's mongolian beef.

"I'm so happy to have my family together again!" Margaret beamed.

"How long can you stay with us? Alan asked.

"A couple of weeks." Don said.

Coincidentally, Marc and a couple of friends were eating at the next booth.

**2005**

At dinnertime, Don returned to the house.

"How's Charlie?" he asked.

"Larry said that he went outside for while" Alan said as he swept the kitchen.

Meanwhile, Larry tried to talk to his friend. Charles... what you said about Alan, is both true and untrue. It really depends on how you define the term 'father.' "

"I'm at a very important line of thought, Larry! I can't be entering a discussion with anyone!" Charlie told him impatiently.

"Alan may not be your biological father, but he was the one who helped your mother raise you."

"If my mother hadn't cheated on him, He could've been my father in every sense of the word!"Charlie raised his voice in anger.

**2005**

"I am your father in every sense of the word" Alan said quietly before Larry could argue that Charlie wouldn't even exist if Margaret hadn't cheated. Neither professor had seen the retired city planner come into the garage.

"Who was there for you?" Alan asked. "He sure wasn't."

"Did he ever try to contact me?" Charlie countered.

"He called once" Alan told him.

"That mom told you about" Charlie said bitterly.

"I'm going to go contemplate the Koi pond." Larry excused himself.

"Your mother and I both felt that..."

"I should be lied to!" Charlie snarled.

**1998**

One day, while Alan was at work, and Charlie was at Cal Sci, David came to visit Margaret, who tended to a rose garden in the front of the house. She grew pale and dropped her tools when she saw him.

"We need to talk" he told her.

"There's nothing to talk about" she hissed. "Charlie is not yours!"

"So you still got your husband thinking that Charlie is his?"

"He is Alan's in every way possible!"

"Except one"

"It's not the most important!" she blurted without thinking.

"Ah...you admit that he's mine."

"No! A friend of Alan's is his father!" Margaret said lamely.

"Come on! You couldn't have had two affairs at once!"

"I've got to go run errands" Margaret walked away.

TBC


	5. Chapters 22 thr 27

**2005  
**Days passed, and late one night, Charlie went up to his mother's wedding picture.

"Why did you lie?" Charlie demanded with tears in his eyes. "How could you have done this?"

After some pacing, he continued.

"What was he like?" Charlie asked her, referring to his biological father. "Where did you meet him? What were his hobbies? Did he like math? Why and where did you decide that he was worth risking your marriage?"

Meanwhile, Don, at his apartment, could not help but wonder if one of his father's friends was Charlie's biological father. The agent remembered Alan getting on the outs with a couple of his friends over the years.

"One of them could be Charlie's biological father" he mused. A few minutes later, Don got called and had to go to work.

At midnight the next day, Charlie knocked on Don's door.

"Charlie?" Don was suprised to see that his brother finally left the house.

The mathematician said., "I want you to help me find my biological father"

**1998 **

David followed her to the car.

"Margaret! Come on! He's got a right to know!" he said with frustration. "What if he founds out through someone else?"

"That'll never happen!" she told him in denial and got into the car. Upset, she drove aimlessly. When Charlie came home, he was surprised to find an empty house.

**2005 **

Charlie's facing the issue surprised Don "What?"

"You're an F.B.I agent" Charlie reminded him.

"Yeah but..."

"You probably have some suspects in mind." the mathematician gave his brother an expectant look.

"Well..."

"Tell me!" Charlie glared at Don.

"Remember Hank and Brian?" Don began reluctantly. He knew that if their positions had been reversed, he'd want answers as well.

"Kinda why?"

"We used to hang out with their kids, but then we lost contact because they fought with dad or something."

"Wasnt' Brian an engineer?" Charlie asked.

"I think so" Don remembered then asked. "Didn't he have curly hair?"

Both brothers looked at each other with wide eyes.

**1998 **

Again, Margaret looked for that drawing in vain. Again, it had plagued her nightmares, but this time Alan had been the one that Charlie had asked. Later on in the dream, she overheard Don accusing Alan of having had an affair when he was young.

"Why else would you have hidden it?" Don had demanded of his father in her dream.

"Where is that damn drawing?" she muttered to herself.

**2005 **

"Was he good at drawing?" Charlie asked.

"I dont' remember." Don told him after thinking for a moment.

"We need to find him!" Charlie said. The man seemed like the best lead they had.

" We gotta to think this through, buddy" Don tried to calm him. "We can't just find this guy,go to his house, and then ask him to take a DNA test without at least some more evidence."

"We need to go through the albums in the attic" Charlie said after some thinking. "Let's go!"

"It would be a start" Don shrugged with a sigh. The F.B.I agent in him wanted to ask his father.

After some more nagging from Charlie, Don agreed to go to the house with him, and look through the attic. It was as dusty as he remembered it.

"You take care of the ones in those boxes, and I'll do these" the mathematician ordered with a frantic energy.

After two hours, they had no clues. Frustrated, Charlie threw an album across the room, causing a loud bang.

"You're gonna wake dad!" Don admonished him.

**1998 **

Don came, as a surprise , to Los Angeles for his mother's birthday.

"Donnie!" she gave him a very affectionate hug. Margaret could not help but notice the dark circles around Don's eyes, as well as the signs of weight loss.

"This is for you mom!" Don gave her a gift wrapped box.

"Don! You shouldn't have! Coming to L.A was present enough!" She protested.

**2005 **

Don put a hand on his brother's shoulder, as he had an idea.

"We need to find some sort of old address book." the agent advised gently.

"I already looked through dad's room." Charlie told him. "I didn't see any old address books"

"How about in the basement and garage?" Don wasn't surprised that Charlie would go through his father's things.

"I went through them with a fine tooth comb, a while after I found the drawing" Charlie sighed. Part of him wished that he had never found it.

"What if..." Don began,but didn't know if he wanted to finish.

"What?" Charlie gave him a wide eyed look.

"Nothing."

"Tell me!"

"You biological father could have been married to one of mom's friends" Don suggested gently. He wanted to keep his promise to help Charlie. The agent figured that that would be a very likly way for his mother, a married woman with children, to have met Charlie's biological father.

"I don't remember mom falling out with any of her friends." the mathematician with a puzzled look

"Just because dad found out, doesn't mean that the friend did." Don said. He didn't remember his mother getting into fights with any of her friends either.

"But Dad would have made sure we didn't hang out with that friend and her husband" Charlie commented after some thought.

"We don't know for sure when dad found out" Don told him.

"Dad mentioned thathe and mom had a rough patch when I went to Princeton with her. Could he have found out then?"

"Well..." Don shook his head. "I sometimes overhead dad fight with mom, when he thought I wasn't home,but no affair was mentioned."

"What about the fights you didn't overhear?" Charlie countered.

**1998 **

As David spent Chirstmas day with his children , Margaret and Alan, while happy to be with Charlie, were sad that Don had yet to call, especially since the couple hadn't heard from him in weeks.While they had gotten used to not getting to spend the holidays with their eldest, the couple at least expected a call.

"Something could've happened to him for all we know!" Margaret exclaimed at one point. Charlie had gotten her CDs of some of her favorite Beatles albums, which she had previously had on tape or record. Alan's gift was a beautiful pair of black pearl earrings from Miki Moto. With Don missing, she felt uncomplete.

"Don knows how to take care of himself" Alan said in a soothing voice to comfort her, though he too could not help but worry.

Little did they know that Don, with his partner,was in an old car, staking out a diner in a small town in Idaho.

**2005 **

"Dad said that he forgave mom a long time ago." Don recalled. "He must have found out when we were kids. Besides we can't be sure if he knows who mom had the affair with." The agent knew that with the scant amount of information they had, lots of possibilities had to be considered.

"Wouldn't he have asked her?" Charlie pointed out. "If my wife...had che-che...I would have" He couldn't get the word out.

"Maybe he decided after a while, for both their sakes, to drop the subject?" Don shrugged.

"Why did mom keep the drawing?" Charlie wondered.

"You know that the garage is a black hole!" Don told him. "Mom must've hidden it, but then it got moved around over the years, so it got lost."

"I remember Mom sometimes puttering in the garage" Charlie told his brother after some thinking.

"She was probaby afraid someone would find it accidentally" Don nodded.

"Is she had only told me the truth..." Charlie began bitterly, then his anger started to show. "I should have found out from her!"

**1998 **

"I need to call my folks as soon as we catch this guy" Don commented to Coop.

It took another several days of stakeouts to finally capture the fugitive they were looking for.

Finally, Alan and Margaret got a call from Don.

"It's so good to hear your voice!" Margaret exclaimed. "Where were you?"

"the midwest" Don said vaguely.

"You should've called!" Alan said when Margaret passed the phone to him.

"Great to hear from you too dad"

"How's work?" Alan asked.

"Good"

"Charlie wants to talk to you." Alan gave Charlie the phone.

"How's it going buddy?"

"Great! you?"

"Good."

After some more small talk, Charlie gave the phone to Alan.

**2005 **

Angerily,Charlie threw another album against the wall. Don sighed.

"Your biological father drew the picture for mom when they first met!" the agent said when he let his thoughts percolate for a bit.

"What makes you say that?"

"He must have noticed mom sitting there and thought that she'd like a drawing of me."

"It's that same scenario you told me but with mom!"

"Yeah!" Don said. "What mother doesn't want adrawing of her kid?"

"Good point!"

"And, he didn't have a regular nine to five job!" Don added after some thinking.

"How can you be sure?"

" Mom mentioned that I was in the morning class at kindergarten; that would leave her the early afternoon to take me to the park."

"They could have met on a Saturday"

"Mom always prefered to go to the park on weekdays." Don remembered. "To avoid the crowds"

**1999 **

In Seattle, Terry Lake, with her partner, Thomas, was on a stakeout at an area, near where David attended the art exhibit of a friend of his.

"I got the wedding invitation" Tom told her. "I had to put on my shades to read the thing!"

"The color was Brian's idea" she rolled her eyes. The color her fiancee had chosen had been a bit too bright for her tastes.

**2005 **

"Maybe he had his own business?" Don wondered

"Didn't Fran's husband own a bookstore?" Charlie asked. Fran had been a good friend of the boys' mother.

"The bookstore is like five minutes from the house" Don added. "And he still has it."

"Let's talk to him!" Charlie demanded. "We can go there when it opens, and you can ask him some questions

"Whoa! Let's think this through, buddy." Don put on his soothing-big-brother voice. "You want me to justgo up to a guy I hardly know and ask him if he had an affair with mom during the mid-seventies?"

"Isn't that what you're trained to do?" Charlie retorted with an annoyed scrowl. "Ask hard questions?"

"But not involving my own mother!"

**1999 **

Brian, an arts reporter for a major Seatle newspaper, was at said exhibit. After doing his work, he managed to get a few minutes with David.

"So, when can we expect another David Lev exhibit?" he asked the artist at one point.

"A year or so" David said vaguely.

The show was an astounding sucess, and afterwards, David went to celebrate with his friend.

During some of the stakeout, Terry, for some reason,mused about what Don was up to. She had heard that he was in fugitive recovery. A part of her worried because she knew what it could do to people; Chasing fugitives couldbecome a way to escape oneself.

Brian was asleep by the time Terry returned to their apartment and got into bed.

Around two in the morning, back in Los Angeles,Margaret urged "Charlie, it's late and you need to be up early tomorrow!"

"I'll go to bed in a few minutes, mom" the mathematician told her, as he intensly scribbled in the dining room table.

"You told me that at midnight!" she scolded him, and turned off the light in the dining room.

"Mom!" he protested.

TBC


	6. Chapters 28 thr 33

**2005**

"What do you suggest then?" Charlie scrowled at him.

"We could get his DNA, but the sneaky way, then I could pull some favors at the lab to do a comparison against yours as soon as possible"

"Okay." Charlie nodded. Quickly he went into the kitchen, got a zip lock bag, took a hair out, and put the strand in it. The dead skin cells on it would give his DNA.

"Here."

Don went to the bookstore a few hours later, and got what he needed. Then he took both samples to the Los Angeles F.B.I lab. Some days later, the two brothers talked to the lab technician.

"The D.N.A match was a negative" she told them.

Charlie didn't know what to feel.

Don thanked her, and the two brothers talked at the agent's office.

"What now?" Charlie asked.

"We need to continue the investigation."

**1999**

The engaged couple had a late breakfast, as they had the day off.

"Guess who I talked to last night?"

"Who?"

"David Lev!" Brian grinned. "I asked him when he was going to have his next show and he said sometime next year."

Meanwhile, Don and Cooper busted into an abandoned house to capture a fugitive, who had been hiding there.

"FBI!" they both screamedwhile brandishing weapons"Put your hands up!"

"I've got a bubble protecting me!" the fugitive said defiantly.

"Put your hands up!" Don ordered, with worry. He knew that the fugitive was high on something.

"Or what?" the man stepped closer.

**2005**

"How?" Charlie wondered aloud.

"That's a good question." Don mused with a sigh. David interupted them with some break on a case, and Don had to go.

A couple of days later, Charlie returned to work. As he struggled to focus on his job, Alan again spoke to Margaret's photo.

"I'm sorry that I had to break my promise" he lamented. "What else could I do? Don figured it out, and I had already half let the cat of the bag with Charlie. Knowing him, he's probably trying to figure out who his biological father is. He's lost all trust in me, and we've hardly spoken..."

Between classes, Charlie updated Larry on the investigations.

"Why don't you ask Alan?" Larry suggested carefully. "He might have some inkling of who your biological father might be"

"Why? So he can lie to me again?" Charlie angrily snorted and glared at his friend for making such a suggestion.

**1999**

"Our guns can penetrate your bubble!" Cooper said firmly. Don mused inwardly that he'd find this situation funny if he weren't living it..

"You're bluffing!" the man scoffed. "Shoot me and you will be melted by my ray gun." He held an imaginary weapon in his hand.

Cooper shot him in the foot after a long while of arguing and threats between the F.B.I agents and the fugitive

"They lied! Bastards!" the fugitive cried out, as he fell. Cooper handcuffed him, while Don called an ambulance.

"How are we gonna explain this?" Don asked his partner as the medics treated thefugitive and put him in the ambulance.

**2005**

" Just a suggestion" Larry said softly while putting a finger on his chin. He could sense his mentee's anger.

Later that week, Charlie came to Don's apartment with a list of other possible canadates, mostof whom ran their own businesses when the boys were young.. The mathematican basically remembered the various small businesses the family would go to when he was young.

"I need you to do what you did with Fran's husband." Charlie said when the agent let him in. "Here's a list of possible...you know"

"Zack the ice cream truck guy?" Don gave his brother a 'what the hell?' look as he was reading the list. "And Mr. Malone, the agoraphobe?"

**1999**

"We'll just say that he tried to strangle himself with his own bare hands" Cooper whispered.

"They'll ask why he doesn't have bruises on his throat" Don pointed out.

"Good point"

Eventually, they came up with a story, that only got them a slap in the wrist.

**2005**

"Zack's route took him right to the house, and we'd see him a lot at your little league games."

"Why is Malone on the list?" Don asked.

"I heard he was a very smart guy. Maybe his sister asked mom to look in on him one day...?" Charlie couldn't bear to finish.

"He was an instruction manual writer, and very boring, from what I've heard!" Don argued.

"We need to consider all possibilities!" Charlie countered. Don could see how his brother really wanted to find an answer.

"Buddy..."

"Malone's house is on the way to the store" Charlie said. "Why don't you talk to the neighbors? Ask if they ever remember him having a girlfriend?"

"I guess I could do that" Don assented with a sigh.

The next afternoon, Don came to see Charlie at his office.

"What did you find out?"

"I poked around. He had a girlfriend or two over the years. One was a redhead and the other was a blonde. They were seen coming in and out of the house."

"Mom could have worn a wig"

"What?"

"She had an affair!" Charlie said bitterly, as if that explained his theory.

"Why don't we check out the other men you have on the list?" Don suggested gently, as he put a hand on Charlie's shoulder.

**2005**

"Greg, the stationary store owner."Don mused as he again saw Charlie's list. "He draws and paints."

"Should we go talk to him?" Charlie asked impatiently.

"We need to think this through." Don said, then had an idea. "He likes to sell his artwork, at his store,doesn't he?"

"Yeah. He always did" Charlie remembered.

"I'm going to go buy one of his cheaper pieces, and then you can have your friend from the art department compare it to the drawing." Don said. Charlie had told him what said friend's opinion about the drawing.

"Okay" Charlie took out some money.

"Don't worry about it, buddy"

The next day, Charlie had both works to show his friend, Sam.

"Could you tell me if these were made by the same person?"

"Nope. The drawing of the little boy in the sand, while a mere imitation, shows greater skill than the one of San Pedro Harbor."

"Really?"

"Yes."

"How?"

Sam went into great detail.

Somberly, Charlie called Don with the results afterwards. Later, the two had dinner together and discussed the next person on the list.

**1999**

David could not believe it, when he sat on a bench at the park, to find Charlie hunched over a book on the grass about a few feet away. Soon, he noticed Margaret come to join him, with her own book. She spread a picnic cover near Charlie, and coaxed him into sitting there. Before David could hide, Margaret saw him, and , after seeing that Charlie was absorbed in his work, came over with a fury of an angry mother tiger.

"Why are you following us?" she demanded.

"I just happened to be here"

"You'll have to leave." she ordered. Margaret did not want David anywhere near Charlie.

"This is a public park!" David retorted. "I've got a right to be here, and more importantly, a right to know my son!"

"He is not yours!"

"Come on! You probably knew he was mine the minute you first saw him. He probably had massive dark little curls and a big gander of a nose, though I can't say for sure because you robbed me of being his daddy!" The anger of many years started to show.

**2005  
**  
" Sean McKiernan." Don mused. The man had been an art teacher at their high school. "He's a good choice."

"I did some research and found that he started working at our school about a year before I was born, and lives near us." Charlie told him. "Could you do what you did with Fran's husband?"

"Let's get a sample of his work, first, then if your friend Sam tells us that he did that drawing, we'll go for the DNA test."

Don did some legwork and found that a local cofee shop sold some of his paintings and charcoal pieces. He bought a small charcoal piece, and gave it to Charlie.

Again, Charlie went to see Sam.

"It wasn't the same person." he told the mathematician. "Why are you so curious about this drawing?"

"I'm a uh..very curious person" Charlie lamly lied.

Right after their talk, he told Don of the results.

**1999  
**  
"He'll hear you!" Margaret hissed, as she looked over her shoulder. Charlie, of course, was absorbed in his work.

"He damn well should!"

"David!"

"Look..."

"Who's he going to believe, me, or a total stranger?" Margaret retorted.

**2005**

At Don's apartment, the two brothers talked some more, but they were interupted by the doorbell. It was Alan. He had figured out that the two were trying to figure out who Charlie's biological father was. The ex city planner, had thought about it and knew, in his heart, that he'd want answers as well.

Charlie started towards the kitchen in a huff, when he saw Alan at the doorway.

"I uh..need to talk to the two of you."

"And tell us more lies!" Charlie snorted.

"Charlie! Wait! I know who your biological father is!"

"Who?" Don asked.

"David Lev, the famous artist"

"What?" Don said in disbelief.

"STOP LYING TO ME!" Charlie screamed.

**1999**

"You haven't heard the last of me!" David decided that finding out this way would not be best for Charlie. With the warning, he left.

Shaking, Margaret sat on the picnic spread, cried a few tears, and stared into space.

"You're okay mom?" Charlie asked worridly.

"I'm fine, baby. What are you working on?"

Soon, she found herself listening to a full lecture about some aspect of abstract number theory.

**2005  
**  
"Charlie...calm down" Don told his brother, then turned to Alan. "Why do you think that?"

"You mother had made some...uh..personal drawings of him, which I uh..found and one day I saw that same man in the arts section of the newspaper." Alan didn't want to get into details as to what kind of drawings they were. .

However, Don had figured it out and gasped. He thought about what he would havefelt if he had found out that Kim, when they were together, drew another man in the nude. His anger towards Margaret festered even more.

"David Lev is based in the Pasadena area" the agent remembered. "And didn't your friend say that the drawing of me in the sand was in the style of David Lev?"

"He said it was an imitation." Charlie corrected him with a scowl.

"It was meant to be a quick sketch to give to mom, not an elaborate work" Don theorized.

"Why are you believing his lies?" Charlie glared at his elder brother.

**1999**

Alan noticed that Margaret was quiet and somber at dinner.

"What's wrong?" he gently asked when they were alone.

"I'm worried about Don."

"He'll be fine! We raised him well" he put an arm around her.

TBC


	7. Chapters 34 thr 41

**2005**

"Dad has no reason to lie to us at this point" Don tried to reason withCharlie "The cat's out of the bag"

"If I hadn't walked in when I did, he would never have told us!" Charlie retorted angerily.

"Does he know about Charlie?" Don askd the invitable question.

"He called once. Your mother worried that he'd tryto get at least partial custody." Alan explained. "I went to the legal library, and found out that he would have had a hell of a time. Remember this was before DNA tests. On one hand, it was easy for man to deny that a child was his, but very hard to claim the opposite. Depite my assurances, your mother still feared that he'd try anyway."

"Wait a minute..." A memory popped into Charlie's head.

"What?" Don asked.

"I once remember seeing mom fill out a Western Union form." Charlie paced around the room. "When I asked her about it, she denied it."

"She was sending money to your biological father!" Don said. "He must have tried to help out, but mom insisted onpaying him back. With a money order, she didn't have to worry about dad finding out."

**1999**

The next evening Charlie came home with good news.

"An anonymous donor gave enough money to the math department to help complete that program I was working on!" Charlie said happily.

"That's wonderful honey!" Margaret said, despite the fact that her insitincts told her that the donor wasn't really so anonymous.

**2005**

Charlie's anger towards Alan became less important as he started to think about what his mother did.

"Whoever my biological father was, he seemed willing to take responsibility." Charlie said as an accusation towards Margaret.

"He must have had a P.I. keep track of you!"Don said aloud. It made sense because Margaret's unwillingness totake the man's money showed that they didn't really stay in touch."That's how he'd know that you were going to Princeton!"

"He shouldn't have had to do that!" Charlie said angrily. "I shoud have found out a long time ago!"

"Charlie, you need to understand..." Alan tried explain. "Your mother..."

"Lied to me all my life!" Charlie countered. "She probably preferred Don. I'm a living reminder of her greatest mistake."

"Don't you say that!" Alan scolded. "You mother loved you both equally!"

"And you...probably stayed with Mom only because of Don." Charlie accused sadly, and with anger.

"Charlie, I raised you from birth!" Alan argued. "I do love you like a son!"

Suddenly, it hit Charlie that David Lev could be his father "Sam once said that my way of speaking to an audience reminded him of David Lev. Let's go to the house!"

So, the three Eppesmen went to the house, and Charlie found a pictures of him on the internet, courtesy of a fansite.

"Look at that!" Don pointed to a picture taken of the man thirty years ago. It was almost like seeing Charlie sport fashions from the seventies, except for a few minor physical differences. The agent could see how Alan was able to figure it out.

**2000**

"So this is your family?" Kim asked Don when she came to visit him at his apartment. They were still lookingat apartments for the two of them.

"Yeah" Don had a large eight by ten photo of the four of them, which had been taken during his last visit.

"Why is your brother looking sideways?"

"He entered into his own little world, as usual., and he refused to pose for any more pictures because of some math problem. Not even my mom could convince him to try again. He refused to go with us to dinner."

**2005**

Charlie did lots of research about David Lev over the next few days. Don did as well. The agent found out that for years, the artist had his studio near the farmer's market, where his mother used to go.

"They could have ran into each other there." Don mused as he read a michofishe of an old article about him. A while later, he read something rather interesting and was written in the early eighties.

"David Lev says that he doesn't cook much, but when he does, beef stew is the dish. "The key is to add bay leaves.' he says"

"Mom always used bay leaves when she made beef stew!" Don remembered.

**2002**

Alan held Margaret, as the doctor broke the fatal news. Later, they told Charlie.

"As you know, your mother's been going to the doctor for tests" Alan began softly.

"Yeah, but they were just routine, right?"

"I'm afraid not, baby" Margaret answered.

"What do you mean?"

"Some of the them came out positive" Alan said.

"For what?"

"Cancer" Margaret whispered.

"No! The tests are wrong!" Charlie was in denial. "Go to another doctor! Take more tests!I'll pay for it!"

"Baby, cancer doesn't necessarilymean a death sentence. There's been lots of advancements in the past few years in oncology" she said with more optimism than she felt in an effort to comfort her son.

Margaret then called Don later that evening.

He and Kim were watching a movie in their apartment, when they heard the phone ring.

"Hello?" Don answered the phone.

"It's me, Donnie. How are you?"

"Great, mom."

"And Kim?"

"She's here with me. We're watching a movie."

"Remember when I told you that I've been doing some routine tests at the doctor's?"

"Yeah why?" Don sat down. He knew when bad news was about to be told, being a constant messager of it.

"They came out positive, for Cancer."

"Oh mom...I'm so sorry!" the agent didn't know what else to say. He was in shock.

"Cancer doesn't necessarily mean a death sentence" she tried to comfort him.

"I'll go visit as soon as I can" Don promised her.

**2005**

"Tell me what you know about David Lev" Charlie requested.

"His parents first discovered that he had talent, at the age of four, when he did a still life of a flower arrangement that his mother had in the living room. David's father, like you, was a mathematician."

"Really?"

"Yes"

"What was his name?"

"Isaac Lev"

"I've read some of his work!" Charlie could not believe it; he finally had an explanation for his talent in math.

"Anyway, David became the protegee of the great artist Hans when he was just fiftteen and had his first exhibition three years later. It was a success." Sam said, then get into more detail as to the various influences of David's work, how he fit within the context of contemporary art., and changed it.Charlie listened with great interest.

Later, at an Italian restaurntCharlie talked to Don about what Sam had told him.

"Why did he give up trying to contact me?" Charlie asked with a brooding face.

"Maybe he thought that telling a young boythat the man he looked up to wasn't his father, wasn't the best thing."

"What about when I was an adult?"

"Mom probably fought against that like a lioness protecting her cubs."

"He could've talked to me when mom wasn't around."

"Would you have believed him?" Don asked wisely. "Or even agree to a D.N.A test?"

"I guess not" Charlie admitted.

**2002**

Soon, Don hung up.

"What's wrong?" Kim had sensed that he had gotten bad news.

Don could barely say it. "My mom was diagnosed with cancer"

"Oh Don!" she comforted him.

"I'm taking some time off"

"I'll go with you"

"It's fine, you've got a big case... "

She took him to the airport, as soon as he booked a ticket and talked to his boss.

By early, the next morning, Don was at the house having a silent breakfast with his parents.

"Where's Charlie?"

"He left early for Cal Sci."Margaret said.

"That's just great" Don thought with some annoyance. "Mom gets sick and he retreats into his little bubble."

**2005**

"Do you think he knew about mom's getting sick?" Charlie asked.

"It's possible." Don said. "He did manage to find out that you went to Princeton."

"I've got another brother and a sister" Charlie told him.

"yeah... you do"

"I wonder if they know about me"

**2002**

Students in his first class, of the day,walked in to some rather complicated math on the chalk board. It took a bolder student at eight fifteen to remind Charlie that it was time for class.

"Uh..sorry. I was just working on P vs. NP, ..." Charlie began, and started to talk about the problem and his approach to it. This would have been fine except for one small detail: this was his precalculus class.

"We are in the right class?" a first year premed student dryly asked a friend, who sat next to her. "right?"

"Yeah."

"Dude, what did Professor Eppes smoke?" another student, who sat in the front, wondered.

At eight thirty, a student, who was barely passing the course, came in late, and thought,upon seeing the chalk board,"Geez, I'd better start doing the homework!"  
**2005**

Don shrugged, then changed subjects. "What about dad?"

"What about him?"

"When are you going to speak to him?" Don whispered. He hated the tension that existed between the two.

"Let's see what's on the desert menu"

**2002**

"Screw this!" the aforementioned pre med student muttered to her friend. "If Eppes is gonna get all rain man on us, then I might as well leave and do the reading for my next class." Wit that she left. Little by little, her classmates started to follow suit. One of two tried to stop Charlie, but were dismissed or ignored.

"Professor Eppes, arent' you going to go over the homework?"

"I'm on a very important line of thought" Charlie said curtly, to everyone's surprise. He was known for being a friendly professor.

"We're not a graduate seminar!" a goth student complained.

"Maybe, but I'm on the verge of a breakthrough."

Around nine fifteen, he was kicked out by the professor of the next class. So, he went into his office, where he continued to work on P vs. NP. Around ten, an annoyed Don came to see him.

"Hey buddy!" Don said.

"Don?" Charlie was surprised to see his brother after a long time. They hadn't seen each other since Christmas. Also, it started to bring home the seriousness of Margaret's condition.

"We missed you at breakfast!"

"I had stuff to do"

"Coming to Dinner?"

"I don't think so"

"Charlie, mom needs us! Get out of your precious bubble!" Don's tone grew sharper. Just then, a student, came in. Charlie was his advisor for his dissertation.

"Is this a bad time?" he had heard some of the conversation.

"No...it isn't." Charlie said quickly, only to get away from things.

**2005**

"Charlie!" Don exclaimed. "I know that Dad lied, but he suffered because of what ...mom did just like us."

"This explains alot...you were always able to relate to dad more!" Charlie brooded darkly. "If I hadn't had my talents, mom would have given you all the attention." His eyes showed sadness and anger.

"Don't you say that!" Don said firmly, yet gently and put a hand on Charlie's shoulder.

**2002**

"Actually it is." Don insisted and glared at his brother. "Professor Eppes is going home for the day to spend time with this family!"

"Uh..okay...sorry" the student sheepishly left the classroom.

"Don, his disertation..."

"doesn't matter!" the agent insisted. "Put up a sign, and let's go home!"

**2005**

"I'm a mistake!" Charlie lamented.

"Charlie..." Don began in a whisper. "Anyone who knows you would disagree."

"This explains the rough patch dad and mom had when I went to Princeton..." Charlie insisted.

"The separation was hard on the two of them!" Don argued and interupted.

"Dad said he had an irrational jealosy!" Charlie told him.

"They would have fought if I had been the one mom had taken to Princeton."

Charlie shook his head. "I don't think so"

"Buddy..."

The professor didn't listen; he was too deep in his own brooding thoughts.

**2002**

Soon, Margaret started the torture of chemotherapy and some months later, Don, with much sacrifice, moved back to Los Angeles. Meanwhile, the drawing moved as the agent arranged the garage to be able to fit his stuff.

**2005**

"Buddy..." Don repeated. "Mom loved you! To her, you were anything, but a mistake!"

Charlie didn't respond. He was getting deeper into his brooding.

**2003**

It was a happy day in the Eppes family: Margaret's cancer had gone into remission. All they had to do was wait and hope that it would stay that way. To celebrate, the four went to her favorite restaurant. From afar, she, with worry,saw David eating with a couple of young people.

"Let's go somewhere else" she said suddenly. Margaret wanted to avoid any possibility of a meeting.

"What?" Alan wondered.

"I've changed my mind" Margaret insisted. "Besides, we haven't even ordered yet."

"But mom, you love this place!" Charlie argued.

"Look, I almost died, humor me!"

Reluctantly, the three Eppes men agreed and they left.

That night, Margaret dreamt that she went to the doctor's for a routine visit, but the announcement from her was anything but routine.

"I'm afraid that your cancer is out of remission, Mrs Eppes" Dr. Linda Gorge told her.

Margaret awoke with sadness in her heart, but was glad that it was just a dream. Hopefully it would stay that way.

TBC


	8. Chapters 42 thr 47

**2005**

"Do you think mom wanted to abort me?" Charlie suddenly asked darkly.

"Charlie! Mom loved you!" Don raised his voice slightly

"Maybe she just hoped that your dad was my dad" the professor brooded.

"Charlie, we do have the same dad! He took care of the both of us! And that's what it means to be a dad!" Don argued. "Who paid for your tutors? Who taught you how to ride a bike? To drive? Who was there for you?"

**2003**

Don got a call from his mother at the office.

"Eppes?"

"I'd like someone to find my son. He didn't come to dinner last night." Margaret teased.

"I'm sorry mom, it's this case...I had to stay at work"

"You could have called!"

"Sorry"

"Do I have to almost die again to get you to visit more often?" she joked. Her sense of humor had become more morbid sense her bout with cancer.

"Mom!"

"What good is if for you to be in L.A if we hardly see you?"

"I'll come to dinner, tonight, mom"

"Great! Your father's making a ribeye!"

"Sounds good" Don smiled.

**2005**

"I wish that I had never found that drawing!" Charlie's voice started to quiver as pent up emotion started to get out more and more.

"Charlie..."

"You were right! I shouldn't have over thought it!" he roughly pushed a glass to the floor, causing it to shatter in many pieces. An annoyed bus boy got a broom to sweep the mess.

"Easy buddy..." Don vainly tried to calm him.

**2003**

The Family went out to dinner one summer evening, happy that Margaret had survived to see another birthday.

"I hope you like it mom!" Don said, as he presented her with a small box.

"How lovely!" Margaret beamed as she opened it to find a gold bracelet.

"Open mine!" Charlie said with a gleam in his eye. It was a bigger box. She unwrapped it to find two tickets for a Caribbean cruise.

"Charlie! You shouldn't have!"

"I know you and dad were thinking of taking a cruise, but ..got delayed."

"I guess living at home really pays off" Don teased, but a part of him was jealous that his brother seemed to have gotten the better present.

"I also got first class tickets to Miami, from where the ship will be leaving."

"It's a three week cruise!" Alan exclaimed as he examined the tickets "And we've got a suite with a balcony"

"You can wear the bracelet Don gave you during your dinner with the captain" Charlie added. Gift giving sometimes became a part of thesibling rivalry, though of course, both brothers gave from the heart.

Alan was just happy to see his family in one piece. He truly hoped that that would never change.

**2005**

" My whole life has been a lie!" Charlie snapped.

"We're brothers, Charlie. That much is true!" Don said.

"I had a right to know my other brother!" the professor said emphatically. "Not to mention my sister and my grandfather! He was a mathematician! Don't you realize how much that explains? How much it could've helped? Mom should have realized this!" Anger started to brew again.

**2003**

"The bracelet is beautiful!" Margaret told Don. She sensed that he felt jealous, and wished he wouldn't. What mattered to her was the love behind the gift.

"I couldn't have chosen it better, myself" Alan added, to support what his wife was doing.

"I glad you like it, mom" Don said with a smile, and tried toremind himself that he worked for a the government, and lived on his own, so there was no way he could buy the kind of gifts Charlie often did.

**2005**  
"Charlie..."

"She did nothing but lie to me!"

"We've got to focus on the future. Dwelling on the past isn't going to help!"

"That's easy for you to say!" Charlie retorted. "You're not a product of an affair!" People started to stare, as the professor's voice grew louder.

**2005**

"Charlie..."

"My own mother lied to me!" The professor yelled even louder

"Charlie..."

"Is there a problem?" A uniformed officer, a regular and a friend of the owner came up to them and asked. She heard the noise of the noticed the growing disagreement between the two men and it seemed to be escalating given how one of them seemed to be getting more and more upset,as could be seen from his screaming . "Perhaps you two can work things out elsewhere?"

Don carefully flashed his badge and whispered."We're sorry. My brother works with me as a consultant, and a recent case kinda hit home.

"Perhaps you two would be better off talking about this somewhere more private?" The officer suggested diplomatically and with some more sympathy than before.

**2003**

"I'm so glad you came see Charlie teach!" Margaret beamed as she and Don walked in the Cal Sci campus towards where Charlie had one of his seminars.

"No problem mom." Don had mostly done it to please her and stop the constant nagging.

Soon they were there. Charlie saw them right away and his faced lit up.

Don found his brother to be an energetic teacher. Afterwards the professor met with them.

"Hey! Thanks for coming!" Charlie smiled from ear to ear. Don's coming meant approval, something he always wanted. "Were you bored?"

"No no..." Don said truthfully. He had understood some of the math since it was a first year class.

"Why don't we have some lunch?" Margaret suggested.

"I've got a little time" Don shrugged.

"My next class isn't for another hour!" Charlie said.

While the trio ate,Margaret thought about how, cancer or not, it would eventually just be the two of them. Alan and her weren't immortal after all. She truly hoped that they could eventually grow closer.

**2003**

Two nights later, Margaret had a nightmare.

She and Charlie were in the living room, and he, having found out the truth somehow, was furious with her.

"Why did you lie!" he demanded angrily and with tears in his eyes. "I should have been told!"

"Charlie..." she had tried to get in a word edgewise, seeing Charlie like this hurt her to the soul.

"You're a liar! You've never told me the truth!" he accused. "Everything has been a lie!"

"It's true that I love you!"

"Then why did you lie?"

Then, Don joined the melee, yelling "How could you have done this to Dad?"

"Don..."

"Was it worth it mom?" Don asked with his meanest, cruelest scowl.

She woke up with a start, and tears in her eyes. Unable to sleep she went to the kitchen to make some tea. Sometime later, Alan came to the kitchen as well.

"I noticed you were gone, and thought I'd join you" he said softy.

"I woke up and couldn't go to sleep" Margaret said.

"You had a nightmare about Don?" Alan asked. Sometimes she dreamt about their eldest getting injured on the job.

"Yes I did, actually" she said as Alan put his hand on hers.

"I'll get you one of my sleeping pills" He gently got up, got one from the medicine cabinet, and gave it to her.

She took it and eventually they both went back to bed.

**2005**

"Actually, that's not a bad idea. Come on buddy, let' s go" Don said. The professor, however, just sat there, in deep thought. "Charlie!"

It took the professor a minute or two to finally, and reluctantly get up.

"Let me drive you home, buddy" Don suggested as they left the place.

"I need to meet my biological father" Charlie said suddenly.

"Oh?" Don wondered if Charlie was ready for that step.

"That was the whole point of finding out who he was" the professor told him with slight annoyance. "Right?"

"Of course, Buddy." The agent worried that Charlie would expect too much from his biological father and be disappointed.

"The question is, how should I approach him?" Charlie wondered. What if David no longer wanted to meet him? How could and would they relate? Any connection was from mere genetics.

"I don't know what you tell ya, buddy" Don said softly.

"I mean, he knows of my existence, yet he hasn't come forward, even after mom died."

"He figured that without her backup, you'd never believe him." Don said.

"Maybe..." Charlie mused. "Or his wife didn't want him to contact me?"

"It's possible"

"Why do you think mom cheated on dad to be with him?" Charlie wondered aloud.

"Charlie...people cheat for all kinds of reasons..." Don answered evasivly, though he theorized that his mother perhaps found the artist to bea nice break from her suburban life, or maybe like the two brothers, Alan worked too much.

"Like what?" Charlie pushed.

"Look, the reality is that mom cheated and I don't want to dwell on why!" Don had gotten uncomfortable with the subject and so his tone grew sharp.

Charlie sighed as they got into Don's black SUV. As the car hummed along,The professor thought about what he would ask his biological father, while Don worried about how Charlie would react to answers of the questions he knew his brother would have for David.

**2005**

"Mom alway wore her wedding ring. He must have known she was married." the professor commented after some thought.

"I suppose" the agent did not want to have this discussion.

"Why do you think someone would get involved with a married person?" Charlie mused aloud.

"The unavailable seems more attractive I guess" Don shrugged, not liking where the conversation was going.

"I'm going to ask my biological father about that" Charlie said.

"Okay..."

"He's the mystery donor!" Charlie exclaimed.

"Mystery donor?.. oh yeah..." Don remembered.

"It was the one time he could help me without mom interfering." the professor mused.

"Mom worried about how you would take the news" Don commented.

"No! she worried about my finding out about how much she lied!" Charlie's anger got wound up again.

"Charlie..." Don put on his soothing big brother voice, which the professor hated.

"How would you feel if everything you thought you knew was a lie!" Charlie felt frustrated at how Don seemed to always be trying to calm him and be on their mother's side.

"This isn't about me!" Don snapped, though realizing how angry, and hurt he'd be if their places had been reversed.

"I would have told my kid the truth!" Charlie argued irrationally.

"Yeah I'm sure!" Don scoffed.

**2003**

The December morning seemed even colder, as Alan and Margaret sadly, and in shock left the clinic, where she had gone to get her periodical checkup: the cancer was back.

"Let's not tell the boys until after New Year's" she told him.

"Okay" Alan nodded numbly.

At dinner, they both tried to seem cheerful for the sake of appearances, but Don wasn't fooled. He could see the sad, hidden look in his father's eyes. However, for Charlie's sake, he didn't bring it up.

"I got another project funded thanks to that mysterious donor!" Charle beamed.

Everyone congratulated him.

Alan noticed that Margaret looked uncomfortable.

"How do you know it's the same person?" Don asked.

"Not very many people care alot about what I'm into researching. Even less have the money to fund it." Charlie said.

"I'd like someone to fund the get-Don Eppes - a new-car-project"the agent joked. He had his eye on buying a black SUV.

"How much do you need? You could pay me back anytime, no interest" Charlie offered with true concern and love for his brother.

"Thanks Buddy!" Don said with a smile. "But it's fine. I'll manage somehow."

"Why don't we all do something tomorrow?" Margaret suggested

"I've got..." Don began.

"To spend time with your family!" Alan finished. Given the day's events, he decided to give his son a push.

"I'll go" Don now was sure that something was amiss.

TBC


	9. Chapter 48

**2005**

"So you wouldn't tell your kid the truth?" Charlie asked sharply.

"I wouldn't cheat on my wife. Period." Don sidestepped the question firmly.

"What if she had a child and you found out that it wasn't yours? Would you have accept him or her? Like Dad did with me?" Charlie inqueried.

"Again, this isn't about me!" Don retorted and glared at his brother.

"Is that a no?"

"It's a hint that we should change the subject!" Don demanded bossily.

**2003**

"What are we doing?" Charlie asked.

"What would youl like to do, hon?" Margaret countered with her own question.

"Whatever Don wants to do" the professor said.

"Mom should decide" Don commented, while sipping some beer.

"I agree" Alan asented with his eldest.

"I'm happy anywhere, as long as I'm with my family." she said. Given the recent news, Margaret heartfully felt that way.

**2005**

"You don't think that you could be as forgiving as dad was?" Charlie pushed.

"Charlie..." Don put on a warning tone. Truth be told he didn't think so. He hadn't quite forgiven Kim for canceling the engagement.

"Did...Kim cheat on you? Is that why you're acting like this?"

"NO!" Don yelled, angry that Charlie would think such a thing about her. "She never would have done that! What is with you man?"

They spent several minutes in silence, and soon, they were at the house.

"Good night" Don said evenly.

" 'Night." Charlie said.

Gingerly, the professor went into the house. Alan, wearing,sat in the living room, doing a crossword puzzle. Since the big revelation, the two had lived in the house like two, distant college roomates with different schedules.

"You're home" Alan said simply.

"Yeah."

"Thought you might like this" Alan handed him a part of the newspaper "It's today's arts section of the L.A times."

"Why?"

"Look at the front page" the retiree insisted.

With a sigh, Charlie complied. When he saw it, his pupils grew wide. There was a large picture of his biological father.

"He's having an exhibit next week" Alan said. Despite the pain in having to see another picture of his wife's ex lover, he knew that he had to save it for Charlie.

"Really?" Charlie quickly read through the article. Then he commented "It's going to be nearby!"

"Yes it is"

"Perfect!" the professor exclaimed. "I think that it's about time, that we met."

TBC


	10. Chapter 49

**2005**

"You're going to introduce yourself in public?" Alan tried to keep his voice even.

"I'm going to show up to the exhibit" Charlie said.

"And then...?"

Charlie said after thinking for a bit"I don't know"

**2003**

"Let's work on a jigsaw puzzle together tomorrow afternoon!" Margaret suggested.

Both brothers sighed inwardly, but they wanted to please their mother. They were reminded of when, during the long summer vacations, she would get them to do puzzles with her.

As the foursome sorted out the pieces of a several thousand piece puzzle the next day, Margaret remembered the first time the two brothers met. It was at home, as visitors under sixteen weren't allowed in the hospital. Her mother had stayed with Donnie.

_"This is your brother. His name is Charlie" Margaret showed the baby, who had a lot of black, curly hair, to Don._

_"He's got lotsa hair !" Donnie exclaimed._

_"He sure does! When you were a baby, you had no hair at all!" Alan explained. Having another son really made the city planner happy._

_"He looks too little to play!" the little boy realized with a pout._

_"He'll grow, and soon you two will be playing rough out on the yard!" Alan told the boy in consolation._

_"Not too rough I hope!" Margaret held the baby more protectively._

_"Why don't we take some pictures? set the baby on the bed, and have Donnie sit next to him." Alan suggested._

Margaret returned to the present, and saw one of those very pictures on hanging near the dining room table, where the family worked on the puzzle.

Alan noticed her looking at them, and commented with a smile. "Don noticed that Charlie was too small to play with"

"You told him that Charlie would grow and they'd soon play together in the yard"Margaret added.

Alan gave her a kiss and they continued with the puzzle.

**2005**

"What made you decide to accept me?" Charlie asked suddenly, remembering his exchange with Don. "As your son?"

"I loved you, from the moment the nurse placed you in my arms. That love grew, as time passed." Alan said gently, surprised at the change of subject, but continued "DNA has no bearing on love, Charlie.When I found out what your mother did, that didn't change how I felt, or the fact that you needed a father."

"If you think that DNA has no bearing on love, why did you and mom lie to me?" the professor's tone grew curt.

"Charlie..."

Charlie left the living room in a huff, to go contemplate the Koi pond, and think about how he was going to do almost three decades' worth of catching up with his biological father.

TBC


	11. Chapter 50

**2005**

While Charlie was at the Koi pond, Don sat at his apartment, pondering the life he coud have had, if Alan hadn't accepted Charlie or had refused to forgive Margaret.

"I would've seen Dad only on the weekends." Don mused, remembering how it was for school friends of his, with divorced parents. "That would've sucked." Not wanting to think about it any more, the agent switched on the T.V.

Back at the house,Alan, who worried about the cold,night air,draped a jacket on Charlie's shoulders.

"It's getting chilly out here" Alan said. The Backyard lights were on.

"I'm fine" Charlie muttered.

**2003**

As the puzzle marathon continued, Margaret remembered what she went through when she firstfound out about being pregnant with Charlie.

_"I can't believe it!" she lamented inwardly, while getting into her car, after leaving the doctor's. "I'm pregnant and I don't know who my baby's father is! I'm not one of those women who go on the Phil Donahue show! What if it's not Alan's and he notices? what if he leaves me? Donnie and the baby will live without a father! Should I abort? I wish there was a wayto know for sure. Let's see, two months ago...I slept with two men. If only I knew the exactdate of conception...Damn!"_

She returned to the present, when Charlie asked her about some piece she had in her hand.

"Is that blue?"

"It's actually aqua." she quickly got back into the hang of things.

**2005**

Alan just stayed near Charlie, for a while. Then went to the house to call Don on his cell.

"Eppes?"

"It's me"

"Hey dad!"

"Charlie is planning to meet his biological father next week at an exhibit" Alan said.

"So soon?" Don worried again that Charlie's expectations would be too high, and then he'll be disapointed.

"You need to go with him." Alan said, having the same concerns.

"Whenever he needs me, I'll be there"the agent promised.

TBC


	12. Chapter 51

**2005**

"I knew I could count on you" Alan said,proud that he had such a generous son.

"How's Charlie?"

"He's at the Koi pond"

"Isn't it a little cold for that?" Don, from childhood, had a protective streak when it came to Charlie.

"I can't drag him inside." Alan said with a sigh.

"I know"

"I'm going to check on him" The retiree told the agent. So, father and son said their goodbyes and hung up.

**2003**

When Alan got up to get himself some beer;Don followed suit.

"How is mom doing?" Don made himself sound casual as he opened the fridge and got beer for the two of them.

"..Fine..very well" Alan lied.

"She seemed upset last night. You did too."

"Save your interogating for work" Alantold his eldest while opening his bottle. "There's nothing going on."

"Dad, come on! I'm not Charlie!"

**2005**

Alan noticed that his youngest was still at the Koi pond.

"I told Don the news" the retiree said. "He wants to come with you , for support"

"Mom should have been the one coming with me for support **and** introductions" Charlie commented bitterly. He threw a pebble into the Koi pond. He still was angry at his mother for not telling the truth.

"Charlie..."

"Don't 'Charlie...' me! I get enough of that from Don!" Charlie snapped, then continued. "I would have told my kid, when he or she was old enough. You knew anyway,why didn't she tell me?"

"She worried about how you would take the news." Alan said gently.

"But I found out anyway!" Charlie argued. "And in the worst possible way! Wouldn't it have been better to find out from her?"

"Hindsight is always twenty/twenty" Alan remarked softly, then added."Let's go inside, you won't be able to go meet anyone if you catch pneumonia."

"Coldness itself does not cause diseases."

With a sigh, Alan went into the house, warmed up some milk, and put some instant coco in it. If Charlie wasn't coming to the warmth, then it would come to him.

Before the professor knew it, Alan was handing him a cup of hot cocoa.

"Warmth doesn't cause disease " the retiree decided to mirror his youngest son's words.

"Thanks." Charlie tried it. The drink was as sweet as he liked it to be.

"Did I put enough sugar?" Alan asked. "You always liked it extra sweet"

"It's fine."

The two sat in silence as Charlie continued to drink his cocoa.

TBC


	13. Chapter 52

**2003**

"Let's get back to that puzzle!" Alan insisted and returned to the dining room. Don took a large gulp of beer.

Back at the dining room, Charlie and Margaret talked.

"I remember, when we were in Princeton, and how I'd come home, only to find the kitchen table of our apartment full of of puzzle pieces" the professor commented.

"Putting together puzzles was never the same without you around" Margaret turned to Alan, who just returned from the kitchen. He put his hand over hers.

**2005**

After a while, Alan got a spare blanket from a hallway closet, and draped it over Charlie

"Thanks" the professor mumbled.

"The last thing your mother wanted to do was hurt you" Alanreminded his youngest caringly.

"Did I remind her of him?" Charlie wrapped the blanket around himself.

"You're unique, Charlie! Your mother realized that better than anyone else!" Alan said; while a part of him felt that, especially when the professor got older, Margaret was reminded of her ex lover, he knew that she realized that Charlie was his own individual.

**2003**

When Don returned to work the next day, Terry noticed that he seemed troubled; Don's effort towards finishing a report seemed half hearted, and he looked weary, just as he did when his mother was going through chemotherapy.

"You okay?" she asked.

Don made a dismissive wave at the computer. "Fine...it's just this report...I'm not abig fan of paperwork"

"Who is?"She teased.Terry was good at reading people. She wondered if Margaret had a relapse.

Before the profiler could press some more, they were assighned a new case.

That night, as Margaret saw Charlie work on something in the living room, she could not help but worry about he was going to cope, as she remembered how he coped with it thelast time, as well as something that David told her.

_"I spentthe last three months of my mother's lifedoing nothing but painting and drawing in the basement. She understood me better than anybody, and I couldn't stand the thought of losing her. I later felt so guilty, and like the worst son in the world...later my dad would tell me that she understood how my mind worked, and never resented me for what I did."_

"Oh Charlie..." she whispered sadly.

TBC


	14. Chapter 53

**2005**

Larry came by the next afternoon, and Charlie shared the news with him in the dining room. The physicist was happy that the ice between Alan and his mentee had thawed somewhat, as could be seen by how they interacted.

"My biological father is having an art shownext week!"

"Really?" Larry had been surprised when he had found out that David Lev, the famous artist, was Charlie's biological father. Like Alan and Don, he worried about Charlie's expectiations being disapointed.

"I want to see him up close before I introduce myself later." Charlie explained.

"Oh...kay..." Larry in his worry, had worse twitchiness than usual in his face.

"What? Aren't you happy for me?" Charlie asked sharply.

"Of course I am Charles, it's just that I am...concerned."

"About?"

"That maybe..." Larry thought for a moment. "You might expect too much from your biological father."

**2003**

Don buried himself in the new case, though he made a point to call home at least once a day.

"How are ya, mom?"

"Fine, I was just about to make some lunch for Charlie, would you like me to bring you something?" she offered, worried about Don's constant diet of junk food.

"It's okay mom, someone just brought Chinese."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah"

"I wouldn't mind."

"It's fine. Besides, I'll try to come over tomorrow night"

At Calsci, the head of the math department,Dr. Greg Zeal talked with David Lev at some diner. The artist's father had been the man's disertation advisor and friend. He knew all about the situation, and kept David up to date about how Charlie was doing.

"I still gasp at how much he looks like you did at that age" Greg commented.

"What is he up to?"

"Teaching, and consulting."

"Is his mother still okay? There hasn't been a relapse?"

"Nope. Now that she's better, have you considered revealing yourself?" Greg found it a shame that the father and son hadn't met.

"I just don't know how to do it!"

"Try to be his friend, then tell him who you are" Greg had known David a long time. "or I could arrange a symposium about the relationship between art and math, and have both of you be speakers!"

"Margaret would interfere. That woman's a tiger when it comes to him"

"Don't I know it! WhenI was Charlie's disertation advisor..." he shook his head. "She would accuse me of pushing him too hard."

"When he was at Princeton, I paid the rent for the apartment he was sharing with his mother, for the rest of the school year. Guess what she did? Send back the money" David sighed.

"How did you two meet anyway?"

"At a park. I impulsively did a sketch of her other son. "

Soon, the bill was paid,and David wondered if he'll ever have the chance to get to know his son.

TBC


	15. Chapter 54

**2005**

"How do you mean?"

"You might expect to have the same relationship with him that your brother" Larry backtracked "...other brother and sister, who he raised, have. And that might not necessarily be the case" The physicist lowered his voice at the end of his sentence.

"Thanks to my mother!" Charlie still couldn't let go of his anger, and talking about the issue brought it up again.

**2003**

At home, David went into a room he had prepared for the day Charlie would join the family. It was full of math and physics books, had some posters, and even had a sundial on the dresser.

"I need to talk some sense into Margaret!" he told himself for the upteenth time.

**2005**

"Charles...I'm sure that your mother."

"... never had any intention of telling me the truth!" Charlie finished. He slammed his fork just when Don was coming in to check on him.

"You okay buddy?" Don asked with concern.

**2004**

Margaret weakly lay in bed, as she shivered. The latest round of chemo had been hard on her. To boot, she had to go for another round in a few days.

"Here's another blanket" Alan came into the room, and with lots of tenderness, put it over the bed. Soon, Don came up to see her. She noticed that it was only noon.

"How are you mom?" The agent asked softly.

"Better" she lied and sat up, if only for appearances. She hated to worry her family.

"Where's Charlie?"

"At school" seeing his annoyed face, she added. "He had lots of papers to grade"

"Of course" Don tried to keep his voice neutral, but was angry that Charlie wasn't here at their mother's hour of need.The agent was anguished by how pale and thin she looked.

**2005**

Instead of answering, Charlie just sulked.

"Did dad tell you? I'm coming with you to the art show! I got the day off"

"Thanks" the professor mumbled. Anger towards his mother subdued his gratitude.

Two days later, Don went to his mother's grave; he had a few things to get off his chest.

TBC


	16. Chapter 55

**2004**

"I gotta make a quick call" Don told his mother, but assured her "I'll be right back."

He called Charlie's cell in the hallwayand got the voicemail."I'm sorry I can't take your call right now. Please leave a message at the beep"

Don left the following voicemail message "Snap out of your precious bubble, and get your ass home!Mom needs you!"

Soon, he returned to his mother's room.

"Are you staying long?" Margaret asked.

"I've got the rest of the day off" Terry had agreed to cover for him.

"Let's watch a movie then." she suggested. Alan had bought a dvd player for their bedroom.

"Sure, which one?"

"The Ghost and Mrs. Muir"

"Okay." Don got it from the DVD rack, and put it on.

**2005**

"Why?" Don began. "did you..do this? Dad loved..loves you so much! He helped raise a kid that wasn't even his, and started dating because you asked him to!"

After a pause, and some thinking the agent continued."On the other hand, if you hadn't done what you did, Charlie wouldn't exist, and frankly, I can't imagine life without him. Either way, you hurt a lot of people, mom. Not only with the affair,but with all the lying. Charlie resents not knowing his biological father, his other brother, sister, and grandfather, who was also a mathemetician! Poor Dad found out the hard way that you cheated, and had someone else's kid, right under his nose. How would you have felt is you had found drawings of nude women among dad's things? If he had been another man, I would have grown up without him around." Don took a few deep breaths in a vain attempt to calm himself. Then, he put some flowers he had bought in one of the entrenched vases near the headstone. He noticed that all of the flowers in them were fresh and that the headstone looked polished."Looks like dad's been here recently."

Finally, the morning of the art show came. Don came to the house for breakfast around ten . Soon after, Charlie came down the stairs, wearing a ponytail, a large cap, and sunglasses.

"I don't want him to see me, until I'm ready" Charlie explained. Nervousness and anticipation had wiped out his hunger.

"Okay, buddy. If that's what you want." Don supported. "Dad made scrambled eggs with cheese"

"I don't think I can eat a bite"

"I wouldn't be able to either" the agent said.

After eating, they were on their way. It took Don a while to find a decent parking spot.

"Ready, buddy?" the agent asked as he turned off the SUV.

"As ready as I'll ever be"

TBC


	17. Chapter 56

**2004**

"Any woman in your life?" she asked as the movie played.

"I just ordered a mail order bride yesterday. I'll bring her by next week" Don teased.

"Finally!" Margaret chuckled and teased back.

"What's so funny?" Alan asked as he returned to the room from getting a little soup for his wife. He was glad that she could find something to smile about.

"Don's being a big tease as always"

**2005**

Before Don could open the door, Charlie stopped him.

"He saw you when he hired that PI!"

"You're right, buddy" Don put on a baseball cap, and his sunglasses. "Let's go!" He hoped that Charlie would not be disapointed by his biological father.

"I need to figure out how I'm going to eventually introduce myself" Charle commented as he and Don walked towards the gallery.

"Maybe through his contact at Cal sci" Don commented. Unbidden, a theory had come into his head.

"What?"

"How else would he know what projects you were working on? A P.I couldn't access that kind of information" the agent pointed out. "You'll need to look atyour colleagues'CVs. That would be a good place to start"

"Of course.." Charlie agreed. "His informant most likly had some connection to his father."

Soon, they were inside. Brillant paintings filled the walls of the gallery. Many even had the sold sign on them.

"There he is!" Don pointed to David.

Charlie stared, as David schmoozed with critics, collectors and others. He stillcouldn't believe how the man looked like an older version of himself, but with wrinkles and graying hair.

"He explains stuff in the same way you do!" Don commented, refering to the facial and hand gestures.

"There's my sister!" Charlie pointed to her. "She looks like him as well."

"But not so much" Don commented.

After some time passed, Charlie grew nervous

"She's coming towards us!" he whispered toDon in panic.

TBC


	18. Chapter 57

**2005**

"Relax buddy" Don advised in a brotherly way.

"Are you Rocko?" the woman asked. Like Charlie and David, she had dark, curly hair.

"No" Charlie awkwardly made his voice a pitch lower.

"You ...seem familiar..." she gave Charlie a good look.

"We're just here for the art" Don said.

"Okay..." Son she excused herself and went to see Charlie's other brother.

"That was close!" the professor exclaimed.

"Sure was."

**2004**

Aren't you going to eat any soup, mom?" Don asked after a bit. She hadn't touched it since Alan had put it on the bed tray.

"I'm waiting for it to cool down" she told him, though he wasn't fooled.

Eventually, the Ghost and Mrs. Muir finished.

"What do you wanna see next, mom?"

"To have and Have not. Margaret told him, while arranging her pillows yet again."You dad got me a DVD copy of it last week"

"Okay." Don switched DVDs, and again cursed his brother for not being there.

**2005**

"This is amazing work!" Charlie looked around some more.

"Sure is..."

"I wonder what kind of father he was" Charle mused.

**2004**

Around nine in the evening, Margaret started to worry.

"Don, why don't you go pick him up? It's getting late, and I don't like it when he bikes at night" Between his tendency to get distracted,and the darkness could hide him from oncoming cars Margaret could not help but be restless and anxious.

"Sure" Don agreed, if only to give his brother a good talking to.

Soon, he was at Charlie's office.

"Hey man! It's time to go home!" Don annonced bossily, but the professor just ignored him.

"I've ga-got to fi-finish these ca-calculations." Charlie continued to scribble on a piece of scratch paper.

"Screw the calculations!" Don angrilygrabbed the paper, tore it up, and throw the ensuring pieces in the trash. "Let go home! Mom's worried sick about you, though it should be the other way around!"

"What are you doing?" Charlie demanded.

"Let's go home!" Don repeated in a menancing voice.

**2005**

"Oh no!" Charlie groaned.

"What?" Don asked.

"Sam's here!"

TBC


	19. Chapter 58

**2004**

"I've got work to do!" Charlie insisted, took out another piece of paper, and started to make calculations again.

"Mom wants you home! Come on!" Don's face started to turn red.

**2005**

"Let's move before he sees us!" Don suggested, and they did so.

"Why did he have be here?" Charlie sighed, worried that his friend would ruin everything.

"He is an art professor, buddy." the agent reminded him.

They looked at more of the paintings, then after a while, reluctantly decided to go home before starting to push their luck.

**2004**

"I CAN'T!" Charlie insisted, his voice was loud enough to be a borderline yell. All of his issues, and inability to cope could be summed up in what he had just said.The only person who understood him, could be dying, and he just couldn't cope with that.

"Do you think that this is easy for me?" Don yelled "Seeing mom like that? Grow up and and face reality!"

"I'm in the middle of an important line of thought!" Charlie started to write on the chalk board.

**2005**

Charlie, when Monday came, started to dig to see who could possibly have been his biological father's informant. In the hallways of the math department, he overheard an interesting conversation.

"You won't believe it! I heard Zeal talk to David Lev, over the phone!" The TA liked art.

"The artist?"

"Yeah"

Quickly, he went to the office of the math department head, and came in without even knocking.

"Charles?" Greg tried to be patient, but he had been in the middle of talking to a student.

"We need to talk."

TBC

(BTW- I decided to change it so that David Lev's father was actually a professor in USC. I just realized that hte school I had him working only offers BSs and BAs, which became a problem when I had Lev's dad be Zeal's doctorate advisor)


	20. Chapter 59

**2004**

"Earth to Charlie!" Don took the chalk from Charlie, grabbed his shoulders and shook him a bit.

"Lemme go!" he pulled away.

"Mom is having one of her bad days, yet she worries about you."

"I've gotta get this done" Charlie mumbled as if he hadn't heard.

"You don't deserve for her to be your mother!" Don growled.

**2005**

"It's kind of urgent" Charlie continued.

"I can come back later" the student kindly offered, and left.

Soon it was just the two of them.

"How long have you known that David Lev was my father?"Charlie got to the point. Instead of answering, Zeal looked at the younger professor with his mouth open. "Greg? How long have you known this?"

"Since you were a graduate student here" Zeal said after a pause. His father, your grandfather, was my doctorate advisor. David told me about the...situation when you enrolled here."

"What exactly did he say about it?"

"That he had an affair with a married woman only to find out a few years later that she had a son that looked like him." While surprised, Zeal was happy that Charlie and David could finally met, though he realized that it must have been painful for his younger colleague to find out the truth.

"What else did he say?"

"That he hasn't been able to reveal himself, but wanted to know how you were doing, and help out in any way he could"

"So he was the mystery donor all these years"

"Yes. I helped him make the arrangments."

"Oh..." Charlie's tone grew a bit sharp as a part of him felt annoyed that he had been lied to by yet another person.

"He made me promise not to mention anything to you"

"Does his family know about me?"

"He told his wife when he first found out, and he told his kids when they were older."

"So, basically my mother was the obstacle to us meeting" Charlie commented in an annoyed tone.

"So...do you want to meet him?"

"Yes, I do"

TBC


	21. Chapter 60

**2004**

"I've got to work on this!" Charlie insisted.

"You're starting to sound like a friggin broken record!" Don sneered, and continued to berate his brother. "I'm sick of this! Why do I always have to be the responsible one? Huh?"

**2005**

"Why don't I introduce you, then? I'll cancel my classes for the rest of the day. His studio is close." Zeal, like David, had been wanting this reunion to happen.

"Of course! I'll go cancel my classes" Charlie agreed happily.

They went in Zeal's car. Once they arrived, Greg got out his cell and called David.

"Could you come out for a sec?"

"Why?" David asked.

"Trust me. You won't regret it!" Greg insisted.

"I'm in the middle of..."

"Just come out!"

"Fine..." David sighed, wondering what his friend was so insisting about. Soon, the two men hung up.

"I got him to come out!"

"Okay!" Charlie's heart had been pumping hard during the whole conversation, worried about the kind of impression he'll make, and about being disapointed. Nerviously, he got out of the car. Just then, he saw the artist come out. His hair was all messy and there was paint in his clothes.

"David, this is your son, Charlie. He knows the truth."

Happily, and impulsivly, David gave Charlie an affectionate bear hug, then pulled away, worried that he was making the professor uncomfortable.

"Sorry, it's just that I've been wanting to do that for decades!" David said. He couldn't believe that the day he had been waiting for had finally come.

TBC


	22. Chapter 61

**2005**

"Let's go inside!" David suggested. Soon, they were inside. "I've had this place since before you were born"

"Did my mother see it?" Charlie asked tenatively.

"Yeah...she did..." David didn't want to mention that it was where they had most, if not all of their trysts.

"Oh..."

"Sorry if it's a mess. I didn't..know.." David apologized as Charlie saw the mess.

"You should see my office" the professor chuckled. "Don't worry about it."

David cleared a bunch of books from a couple of chairs, and they sat down.

"I uh...found a drawing you did of my brother, in the garage" Charlie said awkwardly, as he looked around.

"Really?" David was surprised. He had figured that Margaret would have gotten rid of it.

"Yeah. She must have lost it somehow."

"So...uh...tell me about my brother...I mean other brotherand sister" Charlie requested.

"Dawn is a doctor, and Marc is a free lance writer."

"How old are they?"

"Dawn is twenty five, and Marc is twenty."

"So, I'm a big brother?" Charlie couldn't imagine himself in that role, having been the youngestof Margaret's children.

"Yep.

**2004**

"Damn it Charlie!" Don said. "What kind of person works on equations while their mother is sick?"

Charlie continued his work.

At that moment, Don got a call on his cell.

"Eppes?"

"Where are you? Is Charlie okay?" Margaret's worried voice came on the line.

"Why don't you ask him? Hold on" Don hoped that maybe hearingtheir mother's voice would get Charlie to snap out of it.So, he told his brother. "Mom wants to talk to you!"

TBC


	23. Chapter 62

**2004**

"Tell her I'm busy" Charlie mumbled. He couldn't face talking to her.

"Damn it Charlie! What is with you?" Don went back to the phone. "Mom..sorry Charlie just left for the bathroom..."

"Don't push him, Don. Just bring him home as soon as you can" Margaret told her eldest.

"But mom..."

"Please Don, do that for me..." She pleaded, understanding whather youngest was going through.

"Fine.." Don agreed reluctantly.

**2005**

"You know..the thought of being a big brother..is so...alien to me" Charlie added, the joked. "I guess I can take my cues from Don ..."

David chuckled. "So..does he still have a bad temper?"

"Kinda, but he controls it most of the time" Charlie said. "Why?"

"It's just curiousity.Right afterI drew that picture, he yelled 'Gimme my shovel!' at another little kid. Sounded like he meant business." David said.

Charlie laughed. "My mom told me of similiar ..'incidents' "

"Was Don a good big brother to you?"

"We had our fights, but yeah..." Charlie answered.

"That's great to hear!" Both felt awkward.

Just then, David's other son came in. He happened to be in the neighborhood. He went to Pomona College, in Claremont, California.

"Dad?" the young man said from the doorway.

"Here! And I've got a surprsie!"

"What is..." Marc saw Charlie.

"Marc, this is your older brother"

TBC

btw- I'm going to Miami this Saturday, and my net access will be limited. Tomorrow, I'm going to my grandma's, which is from where I'll take a taxi to the airport. Alas, updates will be delayed. I'll write as much as I can before I leave my house tommorrow.


	24. Chapter 63

**2005**

Marc's pupils widened. He couldn't believe it.

"It's a..uh pleasure.." Charlie, filled with emotion said while putting out his hand, which Marc took. David was joyous that his two sons had finally met.

"Same here" Marc couldn't think of anything else to say.

"So I've been told that you go to Pomona college?" Charlie remarked in the form of a question.

"Yeah, I'm majoring in lit."

"I've got a colleague who went there" Charlie commented.

"Marc's had stuff published!" David remarked proudly.

"A magazine article or two" the young man told him modestly.

"Let's go somewhere for lunch!" David suggested.

**2004**

With a sigh, Don hung up the phone, and put it back in its case. Sometimes it felt like he carried the burden for both himself and Charlie. The agent found it unfair that while he had given up a high ranking post, a marriage, and the life he had built in new Mexico, Charlie got to live in his own little world, with the blessing of their mother.

Back at the house, Alan seethed inwardly at his youngest son."After all she has done for you, Charlie! And you can't be bothered to spend a little time!" He hoped that Don could talk some sense into Charlie.

Margaret figured out what he was feeling, and told him.

"Thats the way his mind works, Alan."She tried to explain while putting a hand on his shoulder."You need to understand that! Especially if..."

The retiree interupted her, abruptly, and said firmly. "You are going to get through this! Just like last time!" He could not accept the possibility of losing her. She was everything to him.

Margaret, had a feeling that he was wrong, but said. "Just try to be more understanding towards Charlie."

**2005**

They went in Marc's car to a hole in the wall place that served Argentinian food.

"You guys are gonna love it!" the writer promised as the server seated them in the middle of the place.

"What kind of food do you like, Charlie" David asked.

"All kinds" Charlie answered.

"So do we!"Marc said. "Have you had Argentinian food"

"No."

"It is very meat based" Marc explained. "I really recommend the churrasco. It is a type of steak, that you eat with a special sauce. Or you can get some empanadas, which are kinda like mini meat pies, which can also have chicken, ham, or even cheese. Actually, in a way, empanadas are, in a way, more like Italian calzones."

"Sounds great!"Charlie said, happy that he could share a meal with David and Marc.

Soon, they all ordered.

"I love the atmosphere" David commented. "Very homey, yet light."

"Always the artist" Marc teased affectionatly.

When the food came, Charlie had a very interesting surprise in his meal.

TBC


	25. Chapter 64

**2005**

"Someone left me a note!"Charlie commented as he saw a folded piece of paper near his churrasco steak.

"Open it!" Marc insisted.

Charlie did so, and read the message aloud."The solution to P vs. NP is forty two"

Marc and David both laughed.Both were fans of The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy series.

"What is so funny" Charlie wondered.

"Looks like we have got ourselves a Hitchhikers virgin dad!" Marc told his father with with a playful gleam in his eye.

**2004**

After a while, a frustrated Don said."Do what you what! Stay here for the rest of the milleniam!" In a huff, the agent left his brother's office and called his mother.

"I'm sorry, mom, but there is no way to get Charlie out of his office" Don told her. "He'll be fine."

"Try to bring him home!" Margaret insisted

"Mom..."

"Please!"

**2005**

"The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is a series of books." David began, and Marc continued the explanation

"One of the servershappens to be a fan. While you and dad were parking, I asked him to leave you that note." Marc grinned from ear to ear.

"Greg told you that P vs. NP was a pet project of mine" Charlie nodded.

"Yeah, then dad told me." Marc said.

Charlie could see that his younger brother had a silly streak in him.

"I wish you could meet Dawn, but work keeps her busy. I was lucky that she was able to come to my last art show." David shook his head.

**2004**

For some odd reason, David, in his studio, started to remember the day he and Margaret broke up.

_She had come one evening, which was unusual in and of itself. He loved the green dress she had on. To his surprise, she gave him back her set of the studio keys._

_"What is this?" he looked bewildered._

_"I can't do this anymore!" Margaret shook her head._

_"What?" his large, dark eyes grew big, and he looked hurt._

_"This isn't fair, to either Donnie or my husband." she tried to explain. "Alan's a wonderful man, he doesn't deserve this"_

_"That was never your issue with him!" David countered. "He doesn't appreciate you like I do!"_

_"I don't have to defend him to you! Besides, you knew that it couldn't last!" Margaret argued. _

_David didn't know what to say. He had harbored fantasies of her divorcing Alan, and the two of them living together, with little Donnie, and maybe even a child or two of their own._

_"You're only staying with him because he can give you that bourgeose lifestyle."_

_"Don't you dare say that!" She scolded. ". I care about you, and the sex was great, but Alan has my heart. I've come to realize that"_

_"Margaret, I could provide Donnie with a good life!" he insisted. _

_"Filled with your weird bohemian friends, and withoutthe stable, firm,influence of his father. "_

_"I could provide a stable influence!"_

_"Look, there is no point in arguing! This is goodbye! I need to pick up Donnie from a friend's house, and get home before Alan does." she insisted, and started to leave, but David grabbed her arm. He had grown fond of her. She was an extraordinary woman._

_"Let me go!"_

_"Is this because I called last week?"_

_"No! Just go see other people! Find someone, with whom you can share you life and, your passions. Don't approah them if they're married!"_

_Reluctantly, he let her go and she left._

_TBC_


	26. Chapter 65

**2004**

Margaret remembered when the two brothers started to bond.

_Charlie had just turned seven months. Donnie was playing with some of his toy cars. Curiously, the baby crawled to where his big brother was, grabbed a car, which was half the size of an adult fist, and put it in his mouth._

_"Charlie! That's icky! I don't want your cooties!" the older boy yelled and roughlytook the car away. The baby pouted._

_"Don't yell at your brother!" Margaret scolded, then tried to explain patiently. "Sweetie, that's how babies explore. With their mouths. You used to do the same thing when you were his age. Why don't you teach your brother how to play with the car?"_

_"Why can't he take a nap?" the boy asked._

_"He just did."_

_"I liked it better when he was sleeping all day" Donnie hadfound how tiresome an older baby could be._

_"Didn't you want a brother to play with?" Margaret asked. "You've got to teach him how to play!"_

_Reluctantly, he did._

_"The car goes like this" Don moved it around, as the baby watched. "And if you like, you can make it crash" The boy got another car, and crashed the two, having them jump as far as his arms would go. "Boom! Or you can have the car fly and crash into furniture when mom and dad aren't looking" Don crashed a car into the sofa._

_Quickly, the baby got the hang of moving around the cars, though he did it awkwardly. Soon, both boys were absorbed in playing them. Margaret smiled when she went to check onDonnie and the babyfew minutes later._

_"Isn't it fun, playing with your brother?"_

_"Yeah..." Donnie admitted. Then, Charlie started 'crashing' a car into the wall._

_"Charlie! No!" Margaret moved him farther from it._

Soon, Alan returned his wife to the present, by serving her some tea.

**2005**

"I know what that's like." Charlie told David with understanding.

Marc, just then, got a call on his cell phone. He looked troubled a few seconds after answering it. Soon, he hung up, and said. "I gotta go"

"What's wrong?" David asked, his face full of concern.

"A friend of mine is having...a crisis..." Marc said, as he got up, and pulled out his share of the cost.

"Go! Don't worry about paying!" David insisted. "Drive safe!"

"Okay dad. Bye!" With that he left. So, it was just the David and Charlie again.

TBC


	27. Chapter 66

**2005**

"How did you meet my mother?" Charlie suddenly asked. He was curious to see how accurate Don's theory was.

"It was at a park. One day, I saw your mother there, watching your brother, and I impulsively did that sketch of him for her." David said. Don had been right.

"Did you exchange...numbers?"

"No...after givng her the drawing, I asked if I could do one of her. She was about to say no, when your brother yelled at some kid to let go of his shovel. She had to go to take care of the ...situation"

"Then how..."

"I ran into her two more times. Once in the supermarket, and again in the farmer's markert, where she agreed to let me give her drawing lessons..." David told him awkardly.

"Oh..."

**2004**

"A penny for your thoughts" Alan said softly as she sipped the tea. He then kissed the top of her head and started towallow in his own memories.

_Alan, when Charlie was about one, had decided to take the two boys to a game for some father/sons time. Besides, the toddler had yet to go to his first baseball game._

_"Can't he stay with mom?" Donnie protested. "He'll make funny noises and stuff."_

_"He's going, and that's final!" Alan said firmly. "Go put on your jacket, while I get the car seat."_

_During the game, the baby sat on Alan's lap, eating popcorn, while Don shared a dodger dog with his father. _

_"Ah..ah!" Charlie tried to get a piece of Don's hot dog._

_"Charlie! No! Eat your popcorn!" the boy protested._

_"Ah!"_

_"Here, I'll give you some of my hotdog" Alan offered the toddler, who took it. Sometime later, he started to throw popcorn at Donnie._

_"Charlie! stop it!" Don groaned._

_"Charlie no!" Alan scoldedand made his point by waving his right index finger. "We don't throw food. There are too many starving children in the world."_

_99999_

_"I wanna play baseball when I grow up" Don announced after the game. _

_"You'll need to work hard at it" Alan said, happy that both his kids had enjoyed themselves. The baby had fallen asleep by this time._

All too soon, Alan found himself back in the present.

**TBC**


	28. Chapter 67

**2005**

"Look you're probably wondering what possesed me to get involved with a married woman. Truth was that...your mother was a wonderful person, and I know it sounds dumb...it almost seemed like destiny for me to run into her those three times..." David knew that Charlie would wonder about that issue. "Now I know better of course."

"And if you hadn't felt that or if mom hadn't accepted your invitation for lessons, I wouldn't have existed..." Charlie realized with wide eyes.

"There is that..." David said lamely.

"Did my mother ever consider divorcing ..my...Don's father?" Charlie didn't want to hurt David.

"I fantasized about her doing it..." David sadly thought about his eldest son's slip. "In the end, she broke it off because of him and Don."

"She broke it off?" Charlie repeated in the form of a question.

"Yeah. Did...Don's father ever find out?"

"When I was small I guess, but ..he raised me as his own" Charlie said.

"I'm glad to hear that."

**2004**

Charlie, still at his office, got lost in memories of his own.

_He and his mother were working on a puzzle together on a Friday night. It's hard to make friends in college when your only thirteen._

_"Do you have any blue green pieces?" she asked._

_"No..." Charlie said._

_"Your father called...Don's team won the game!" she announced._

_"That's great!" the teen missed his brother and dad._

_"Why Don't we see go see a movie?" hismom suggested with a smile._

_"It's okay..." there were movies he wanted to see but not with his mother._

_"We could rent one and I'll make popcorn, just as you like it!"_

_"Doing puzzles is fine" Charlie insisted. Besides, what if someone saw him with her at the rental place or the threater? He'd never live it down._

_Just then, the doorbell rang._

_Margaret answered the door. To Charlie's surprise, it was a pizza delivery. His mother paid and tipped the delivery guy, and he left._

_"Your favorite! Deluxe with extra cheese!" she announced._

_"Thanks mom!" Charlie said; the smell of the pizza was making his weekend better already._

_"Go get the plates" she requested. "Let's eat in the living room"_

_For desert, she prepared him hot chocolate milk, just as he liked it, along with cookies she made with pilsbury cookie dough. Everything hit the spot, and Charlie realized that with his mother around, college life wasn't going to be that bad._

Don's stern calling, caused Charlie to waffle out of his memories.

"Charlie! Mom wants you to come home!"

"I can't, not now!" he insisted in a loud, emotional voice. "Leave me alone!"

TBC


	29. Chapter 68

**2005**

"Though, our relationship now isn't what it used to be." Charlie admitted. "Ever since I found out that he wasn't my biological father."

"Really?"

"I'm angry at him, and my mother for not telling me the truth earlier." Charlie said.

"How did you find out?" David asked gently.

"I over heard him talking to my mother's wedding photo, telling her that her secret was safe and that he loved me despite knowing it" Charlie was pained by the memory. "I demanded to know what he meant, and that's when he told me and my brother Don."

"I'm sorry that you had to find out that way" the artist said softly. He always worried that Charlie would find out in a rough way, the truth.

"Did you try to convince her?"

"Many times, but she ...felt that it wasn't the best course of action" David didn't like critizing the dead.

**2004**

Seeing that Charlie wasn't going to listen, Don sat down and thought about a heart heart talk he had with hisparents as a teen.

_"I just wanted to tell you, that your father and I don't love you any less. You've got a very special place in both our hearts, Don, as the firstborn. You introduced us to the joys of parenthood. We love you so much, more than life itself. Don't you ever forget that." She stroked his hair._

_"Okay mom..." how else does a teen respond to that?_

_"I know it's hard to have your brother in the same school. Don't compare yourself to him. Each of you is brilliant in your own way."_

_"Yes mom"_

_"You're mother's right" Alan added as he came into the dining room. "We're both very proud of you"_

_"Thanks dad"_

_At that moment, Charlie sourly came into the house, and Margaret, upon seeing this, turn her attention to him._

_With a sigh, Don continued his homework._

_"What we said still stands" Alan reminded him in a whisper._

Don snapped back to the present, when he heard Charlie yelling at someone.

TBC


	30. Chapter 69

**2004**

"Larry! Don't you see that I"m busy!" Charlie snapped loudlyto his worried and startled friend.

"It's just that I overheard some of your students..." Larry began softly. Don could see the concern in the physicist's eyes.

"I can't enter a conversation right now!" the mathematician began to scribble frantically.

"Oh...hi Don" Larry suddenly noticed the agent.

"Hey..."

"I take it that you would like him to come home?" Larry asked with twitchiness.

"Our mother wants him home" Don said.

"That's going to take a lot of doing." Larry shook his head somberly

**2005**

"I had a right to know!" Charlie said.

David began"I wanted to sue for at least partial custody when I first found out about you, but then my dad, your grandfather asked me this profund question 'How do you tell a little boy that the man he looks up to isn't his father, but a stranger is?'. Realizing that I didn't want to put you through that, and the fact that your mother and ..stepfather were taking great care of you, I decided to wait until you were older to press the issue. Then, you went to Princeton. I knew that because I hired a P.I to keep track of how you were doing. I actually went to visit you once.."

"Did you by any chance, pay the rent?" Charlie interupted, still absorbing what David was telling him.

"Yeah, for one school year, but your mother sent it all back in bits via Western Union..."

"Tell me more about your visit."

"Yeah...your mother was alone in the apartment. I tried to talk her into this idea I had in which she was introduce me as a family friend or someone who needed tuturing, but she refused." David had decided to edit out the part about not even being let in. He didn't want to unnessarily upset Charlie.

"She really didn't want you in my life, did she?" Charlie mused with sharpness and anger at his mother.

David didn't want to say anything, but a part of him was also mad at Margaret.

"Why don't we continue this conversation in a park?" the artist asked suddenly.

"Sure"

TBC


	31. Chapter 70

**2005**

"Why don't you take me to the park, where you first met mom?" Charlie asked impulsivly. Curiousity got the best of him.

"Uh..sure" David said. "Let's go in my car."

Soon, they were there. Thankfully, the sandbox and play area were still there, though the latter was now made from plastic.

"That's where your brother was when I drew him." David pointed to the sandbox. Ironically, there was a little boy in it at the moment.

Charlie found the whole thing surreal.

"So this is where it all began." he thought to himself. "My existence is a result of a chance encounter that lead to more."

"Your mother sat right around there" David pointed to the general area. "I guess they moved the benches around a few years ago. Then, I sat at a nearby beach."

"How did you know which kid to draw?"

"I saw your mother walkyour brotherto the sand area." David answered.

"I see." Charlie said.

**2004**

Disgusted, Don decided to return to the house.

"Mom needs me more than Charlie does" he thought.

"Where's Charlie?" Margaret asked once the agent returned.. She sat in the living room, as did Alan who was doing crosswords.

"In his precious bubble!" the agent told her.

"Don...please have more patience with your brother" Margaret requested gently. "Do it for me?"

"I'll try.." Don said reluctantly when he got a look from Alan.

**2005**

"How long were you and my mother, involved?" Charlie asked.

"Four months" David said.

"Then she broke it off?" Charlie wanted to make sure.

"Yeah. I had unrealistic dreams of living with her, your brother, and maybe a kid of our own" David explained.

"Oh..."Charlie couldn't help but think about how his life might have been different if that had happened. Would Don have resented Charlie for getting to live with his father, while only getting to see Alan on the weekends? Would Charlie still be the person he is now? He supposed that he would never know.

TBC


	32. Chapter 71

**2005**

Charlie began to think of bad scenarios about this alternate universe.

_"I want to live with Dad!" He could see a teenage Don yelling. "You don't care about me, Charlie gets all the attention!"_

_"Charlie requires a lot of attention."_

"Charlie?" David called "You okay? What are you thinking about?" The artist noticed a pensive look on his son's face.

"Nothing worth dwelling on"

**2004**

All too soon, the doctors told Margaret that the end was neigh a few months later, when chemo started to prove futile and the cancer mastesized. She was sent home.

Don took time off, helping his father tend to her by taking the night shift. Charlie lived in the garage.

"Let Charlie be" she told Don. "That's how his mind works"

"Yes mom" Don agreed as he seethed inside, and boxed up his resentment.

On day, she had a serious talk with Alan.

"I want you to promise me, that you'll see other people when I'm gone"

"Margaret..." he began warningly, wanting to avoid this conversation"I need to go to the market"

"Stay!Let me speak." She haphazardly tried to get her frail, pale almost hairless body to sit up.

"Easy" Alan instinctivly helped her. "Don't push yourself"

"When I pass, you're going to need companionship" she began again, when Alan had put some extra pillows behind her back."Sure, you'll have the boys, but they're going marry and have kids...one of these days." She put a cold hand over his warm one.

"I'll get a mail order bride from Russia" Alan tried to lighten the mood, while avoiding the topic.

"Get a couple for the boys, if they don't marry within a few years" she joked. "Seriously though, promise me that you'll see other people"

"Fine...I promise...but not right away" He conceded. How do you say no to the woman you love when she is dying?

"Well, I didn't expect you to put out a personal ad right after the funeral" she joked. Alan laughed to keep from crying.

TBC


	33. Chapter 72

**2005**

"Why don't I show you my office?" Charlie suggested suddenly. It seemed like a great idea to show his biological father his office, and talk about his work.

"Sure!"

So, they went Cal Sci.

David looked around, and was surprised that Charlie was as disorganized as he was. There were papers everywhere, books all over the desk, and post it notes at each nook and cranny.

Before either could say anything, Larry came in.

"I saw your door opened" Larry said, and then saw David.

"Larry, this is my father, David Lev" Charlie said. "David, this is Larry Fleinheart. He's a good friend of mine, and a physics professor here at Cal Sci."

"It's a pleasure!" Larry was surprised that father and Son had met already, but worried about how Alan was going to feel about all his.

**2004**

"One more thing" She added, as Alan did the best he could to keep the tears from falling.. "Charlie must never know"

"He'll never hear it from me!" Alan assured his wife, kissing her hand.

"Thank you, for being a father for him." she told him. "Not a lot of men would have done that"

"I'm not like most men!" he reminded her.

"I knew that there was a reason I married you!" she joked to make the mood lighter and put a hand on his right cheek in deep affection.

That would be the last conversation they would ever have. Alan went to get her pain killers, and when he returned, she was gone.

TBC


	34. Chapter 73

**2005**

"So...do you consult?" David asked.

"Actually I do" Charlie said "For the F.B.I and other..agencies. I even work with my brother on cases"

"He's in the F.B.I?"

"Yeah. He worked in the Albuquerque office until our mother...got sick, then he moved back to L.A" Charlie said.

"I heard about your mother's passing through Greg" David said gently, as he sat down on a chair around Charlie's desk."I'm sorry. She was a great mother to you"

"But not honest!" Charlie thought.

"I know you two are angry at her, but.." Larry began, and turned to Charlie. "You need to look at this from her side. She didn't want to hurt you."

"But she did!" Charlie snapped. Suddenly, Don came in.

"Hey buddy! I was looking for ya" Don began.

"Don, this is my father, David Lev. You were right! It turns out that the head of the math department knew him." Charlie said. "David...this is my brother , Don. He was the one you drew all those years ago"

"Hey!" Don shook the man's hand with mixed feelings. The artist had , on one hand been the 'other man', but his affair with Margaret had made Charlie's existence possible. Don was amazed how the man looked like an older Charlie, except for a few minor differences.

"You sure have grown since I did that drawing!" David teased.

"Guess I have" Don gave his friendly smile.

"Charlie tells met hat you're in the F.B.I"

"Yeah. I am."

"He has his own team!" Charlie boasted.

"That's great!"David said.

Larry wondered what Don was feeling.

**2004**

The funeral felt like a blur to Alan and Don. While they knew this day would come, living it was an entirely different matter. Charlie, while out of the garage, was in his own world during the whole thing.

Afterwards, the three of them went to the house. It felt so desolate without Margaret's presence, or warmth.

"At least she's in not pain any more" Alan said.

"Yeah..." Don nodded.

"Why did she have to get sick?" Charlie suddenly said, and started to get hysterical"Why?"

"Charlie..." Alan tried to comfort his son with all the strength he had.

"Why?" Charlie threw a couch pillow to the floor.

"Easy buddy" Don said, though he was still peeved at his brother.

"Why her?" Charlie began to pace around the living room. Then, he returned to the garage.

TBC


	35. Chapter 74

**2005**

"You were also right about how he and mom met" Charlie added.

"Really?" Don asked.

"It was at a park, and he did the drawing for her there. David even showed me where it was." Charlie said.

"I see, the agent realized that soon, Charlie would get to know his other siblings. No longer was Don the professor's only brother.

"I've already met my other brother" Charlie told Don. "He's a student a Pomona College, and has even published some magazine articles"

"Cool" Don wondered how Charlie was going to handle being a big brother.

**2004**

Eventually, Charlie got out of the garage,and buried himself in his teaching and other projects. Don also used work to bury himself. Alan, started to sleep in the guest room, unable to sleep alone in his. He tried to be strong for his boys, but alone, he had trouble dealing with his grief. Volunteer work, and household projects provided no comfort at all. At the first month mark, Alan and Don went to visit her grave.

"Here's the polisher" Alan handed it to Don. With all the gentleness he had, the agent polished his mother's headstone.

Gingerly, Alan dumped the flowers from the last visit, and rinsed out the underground vases. Then, with Don's help, he trimmed the stems of the flowers,they had brought from the garden at the house. Afterwards, both stood in silence, each man lost in his thoughts.

"I miss you mom! Nothing is the same without you! The house feels cold, and everything in it reminds me of you, but don't worry, I visit to keep Dad company and make sure that Charlie isn't taking advantage of him. He should be here, but found an excuse not to come. He just can't deal. Dad's doing the best he can, but he misses you so much! I love you mom!"

"I'm sorry Charlie couldn't come. You know how he is. I don't think he's quite ready to come to grips with your...passing. Don tries to be strong for me, but he suffers a lot. I love you."

Somberly, they went back to Don's SUV.

TBC


	36. Chapter 75

**2004**

It took another month for Charlie to bring himself to go visit Margaret's grave. Alan dropped him off.

"Call me when you're ready to come home." he told Charlie.

Whenthe professorfirst saw the headstone, he just stared at it. 'Beloved Wife and mother' it said. To Charlie, it seemed to simplistic a way to describe the kind of woman his mother was. To him, she had been a friend and confidant as well as a mom.

"Why did you have to go?" he lamented inwardly, as he got the bottle of polish. However, tears started to flow, before he could open it.

Then, the guilt hit Charlie again.

"I'm so sorry!" he said loudly, to the point of screaming. "You didn't deserve a son like me..!"

He cried himself to exhaustion, then called Alan.

**2005**

Charlie, abruptly had an idea."Why don't I quickly go to the house, and get you some of my baby photos?"

"I'd love some photos!" David accepted gratefully "You could just scan and email them. Being Margaret's second child, you probably don't have that many to spare"

"Dad's volunteering today!" the professor remembered inwardly, so he said. "Let's go to my house!"

"Okay" David agreed.

Don worried how it would go if they were to run into Alan.

Soon, they arrived . David liked the neighborhood, and was glad that his oldest son had been raised in it.

"I bought it from my Dad a while back" he explained, when they got in. "He was actually gonna sell it!"

"It's a very nice house" David commented, looking around, and stopping to admire pictures of a younger Charlie. He stopped for a minute, upon seeing Margaret's wedding picture. There, she looked a lot like how she did when they had first met that fateful day at the park.

"Would you like a tour?" Charlie asked lamely.

"Sure" he agreed.

Eventually, they both went to the professor's room. David examined it closly. There were books of all kinds, photos, and a big mess. After the tour, the artist waited in the living room, while Charlie, went to get the photo albums.

Before David knew it, Charlie had returned with three.

"This one has a few baby pictures." the professor handed David one. Soon, they were both looking over them.

"My father said that I was born with a mass of curls!" David said,when he saw a newborn picture of Charlie.

"My mother told me that my hair was the first thing my brother noticed" Charlie laughed.

--------------------------

"Math camp?" David asked, when they got to some pictures of Charlie at the age of seven.

"My mother wanted me to make friends, and figured that a math camp would be a good place for me." Charlie explained. "But it sucked. I was more advanced than most of the kids there, and they stuck in cliques!"

"My dad once put me in an art class,but it didnt' go so well" David began to share. "My drawings were much better than even the teacher's, though to be fair, the guy was a painter at heart. So, when I was teen, my Dad got Joe O'Kant to let me be his assistant."

"He's pretty famous!"

"He sure is!"

"How did your- my grandfather get someone famous like that to help you?"

"Their dads knew each other" David explained.

In their talking, neither had noticed, that Alan had come into the house.

TBC


	37. Chapter 76

**2004**

Alan didn't say anything, though he could see the redness and puffiness around Charlie's eyes. The ride home was silent, as the professor stared into the window, while taking refuge in his own little world.

The next day, the retiree went to do his volunteering at the homeless shelter. A co volunteer reminded him of a younger Margaret, and he found himself staring at her until she gave him a dirty look. Kicking himself, Alan made an extra effort to focus on the work.

Don found himself thinking about his mother, and remembered a conversation they had during one of his visits. This was abouta year before she got sick.

_"I'm sorry Donnie" she had said. Margaret wore jeans and a 'happiness is being a grandmother' shirts. Probably as a hint._

_"About what mom?"_

_"About giving Charlie all the attention." she looked at him sadly, while putting away some dishes._

_"Mom...it's not your fault that Charlie was..."_

_"It wasn't your fault either!" she argued before Don could finish._

_"You're the blood of my blood, Don, yet I neglected you when Charlie's abilities became apparent, and when opportunities I should have ignored came along..." she trailed off._

_"Huh?"_

_"The point is that, if I were to die tomorrow, I want to express my love today, so you won't be in doubt of it." She finished, kissed him on the cheek, and gave him a hug. _

Terry interupted his thoughts with a lead, and work occupied his consciousness for the rest of the day.

**2005**

"Charlie? You're home!" Alan tried to sound casual.

"Da..This is David" Charlie introduced his biological father simply.

"Boy is this awkward" the artist thought, but said. "Look, I sorry about the affiar..."

"I've been over it for years" Alan said.

"Just for the record. She's the one who broke it off." David said.

"She explained that to me" Alan told him, thinking of the irony of the situation. The 'other man' wasin the house, and had met Charlie.

"I was just showing him some photos" Charlie said nervously, and wondered if Alan was going to say something harsh. "I'm going to scan and make copies of them.

"I see." Alan said. It was surreal to met his wife's ex lover in the flesh. The fact that this man was Charlie's biological father, made things even more complicated.

"You've got a very nice house. I'm glad that Charlie was brought up in it" David said, and meant it.

"Thank you."

"And thank you for being a father to Charlie" the artist added. While annoyed about never getting to met Charlie before this, the artist mostly blamed Margaret, and saw Alan as an accomplice.

"I love him like a son" Alan said.

"Can I ask you something" David requested.

"Sure..."

"When she was sick, did Margaret ever have any intention of telling Charlie the truth?" David knew he was treading on eggs.

"She and I talked of many things, during her last days..." Alan didn't want to make things worse.

"Dad! Haven't you lied enough!" Charlie interupted with a yell"Tell us the the truth!" All his anger at Alan and his mother rose again.

Reluctantly, the retiree admitted "She...made me promise that you'd never find out..."

TBC


	38. Chapter 77

**2005**

"Why am I not surprised?" Charlie asked cynically.

"She loved you so much"... Alan began softly.

"So much that she lied!" the professor snapped and continued.. "She could have told me when I was a teenager or an adult. David wasn't a psychopath or anything! It wasn't my fault that he wasn't the man she was married to!"

"Charlie's right!" David supported his son, but told him. "However, it's not good to get angry at the departed"

"It's kinda hard not to when I've been lied to for thirty years!" Charlie groaned.

**2004**

David, alone in his studio doing the finishing touches on a work, thought about Margaret. Greg had told him of her parting a while back.

"Margaret, wherever you are...I hope you've found peace" he said and meant it. Putting down the brush he remembered a conversation he had with her.

_They had spent the morning together. Around eleven, she had to go._

_"Where are you going?" he asked from cot, while she started to put on her bra._

_"I gotta go home, shower, then go see Donnie's teacher after school." she got into the rest of her clothes._

_"Oh yeah. He's got the morning kindergarten. Why does the teacher want to see you?" he asked._

_"Donnie doesn't have much patience with other children" she told him. "He's gotten too many timeouts lately at school. "_

_"I'm sorry to hear that" he sat up._

_"I don't know what to do about him! He's needy, and very demanding! Then, Alan wants another baby! I don't think so! Donnie needs our total attention!"_

David shook his head at the irony of that statement, remembering how Margaret had gone to Princeton with Charlie, and had close those two were. Suddenly, he heard Marc.

"What's up?" the young man asked.

"Nothing, just remembering..."

"Are you thinking about Charlie?" Marc grabbed a chair and sat near his father.

"No..his mother."

"Are you still mad at her?"

" A little."

"You need to introduce yourself to him!" Marc said.

"I can't just go to his office and say 'Charles, I'm your father!' David argued.

"I guess you're right" Marc said. "if someone did that to me, I'd be really pissed off."

"Charlie was very close to his mother"

"Poor guy. I remember when mom died..." Sadness crept into Marc's eyes, and David put a hand on his son's shoulder.

---------------------

Later on, David remembered a talk he had with his father two days after the breakup with Margaret.

_"What's wrong?" his father had demanded upon coming into the studio. "You don't call, visit, or even answer the phone"_

_"My girlfriend dumped me" a slightly drunk David lamented._

_"You mean the girlfriend whose existence you denied?" he asked. "Did she say why?"_

_"She dumped me for her husband!"_

_"Wait wait...You got involved with a married woman? Are you insane?" the retired professor sat down and gave his son a stern look. "Why?"_

_"She's was smart and beautiful."_

_"Aren't there any smart and beautiful **single** women?"_

_Davidtried to pour himself another glass of wine, but his dad took the bottle away."She said that her husband didn't deserve this, and that her son needed his firm and stable influence." _

_"This just keeps getting better!"_

_"I could have been a good father to her kid!" David insisted. _

_"Who would have hated you for being the reason for only getting to see his daddy on the weekends. That boy would have made you life a living hell" the man couldn't believe he had to say all this.As brilliant as David was, he sometimes lacked common sense ordidn't think things through."If she had been willing to leave a man she had a child with, how sure could you have been that wouldn't leave you as well?"_

_"I hadn't thought of that"_

_"Of course not! Come on! Let me take you to the house! We can order a pizza."_

_"Okay."_

_"Good thing that woman came to her senses." the professor muttered as they walked to the car._

_"Her name was Margaret" the artist corrected him._

David returned to reality and hoped Charlie had this kind of relationship with his stepfather.

TBC


	39. Chapter 78

**2005**

"Let's go back to my office" Charlie suddenly said, grabbing the albums. "You can choose which pictures you want, once we get there"

"Charlie!" Alan said, but the professor was angrily out the door. With a lame goodbye to Alan, David followed Charlie.

"He loves you so much!" David remarked as they got in the car. "I could see it in his eyes."

Charlie didn't answer back, and was silent during the trip back to Cal Sci. Everyone had gone by the time they returned to his office.

Back at the house, Alan remembered a conversation he had with Don, when the latter was in kindergarten.

_"Mommy says that you are being mean to the other children. Why?" the two were in the dining room. The boy and Alan sat across from each other._

_"They make me mad!"kindergartener explained._

_"You dumped orange juice on another little boy!" Alan's voice grew sterner. "You have to learn to be more patient! Your mother and I are thinking about maybe giving you a little brother , and you can't be hitting him, or pulling his hair!"_

_"I don't wanna little brother! You and mommy will not pay 'tention to me like Bob's mommy and daddy!" Donnie pouted._

_"You'll have someone to play with!"_

_"I've got GI Joe!"_

_"Aw well...when the time comes, you'll love him more than your G.I. Joe" Alan said, with a wistful smile, as Margaret gave him a look._

_"Can I go play now?"_

_"No!" Alan replied and added__"Whenever another kid makes you mad, take a deep breath and count to ten, understand?"_

_"Okay daddy"_

_"Next time I hear about a fight, there will be no T.V for week" Alan's voice grew firmer. He could see Margaret nodding in agreement with him._

_"Yes daddy"_

_"Go brush your teeth"_

_"He has to learn to control his temper!" Alan told Margaret when the boy was in the bathroom._

_"With you around, he will" she said, then asked.__"What was that talk about a little brother?"_

_"I want to prepare him just in case"_

The ringing of the phone brought Alan back to the present. It was some telemarketer. After hanging up with annoyance, Alan thought about how true Don's prediction had been trueto some extent. He wondered if the recent revelations put a different light on things for Don.

**2004**

The three Eppes men celebrated Margaret's birthday by going to her favorite restaurant. They sat in at her favorite part of the restaurant.

"It's changed!" Charlie complained as they all got into their seats.

"It's been a while since we came." Don reminded him.

"The carpeting looks terrible! Why couldn't they stick to the old one" the professor continued, while opening the menu. Don sighed, opened the menu, and tried to be patient with his brother. He had a long day, working a horrible case involving child victims. Alan wistfully stared at the empty seat, even without the changes in the interior decor, the place felt different without Margaret. They had first gone when Don was three years old, on the recommendation of friends. The rambunctious toddler embarassed the young parents by, getting out of his seat, walking around, and stealing a breadstick from an older couple. The retiree laughed at the memory.

"What's so funny Dad?" Don asked.

"I remember the first time we came here...you were three and stole a breadstick from someone on that table" Alan pointed to it, while Charlie laughed, and Don looked Chagrined. "Your mother asked where you got it because we hadn't ordered it. You pointed to the table, and she angrily made you take it back. The couple told her not to worry about it, as their grandkids have done worse"

"Don could never resist a freebie!" Charlie made fun of his brother.

"Hey boys!" the waitress, named Sue , who had brown hair, tied in a bun, greeted them. Most of the servers knew them. "How are you? Boys night out?" She was surprised that Margaret wasn't there. The three men swallowed the lumps in their throats.

"My wife...passed away recently" Alan told her.

"Oh...I'm so sorry!" she said. "She was such a sweet woman!"

"I think we're ready to order" Charlie said brusquely, he didn't want to dwell on this at the moment.

"Yeah...let's order" Don agreed, and they did.

When Sue picked up the dishes, she noticed that most of the food had been left untouched.

TBC


	40. Chapter 79

**2005**

"I've got a scanner, though I don't have any photo paper." Charlie told David, as the latter picked and choose photos, or whole album pages, as Charlie remembered a moment in his childhood.

_"Mom, how come I don't look a lot like Don?" he had asked, at the age of eight, as they both sat in the park. It was summer, so Alan was at work, and Don had gone to a friend's house._

_"What do you mean, sweetie?" She closed her book, and put it down._

_"Willy and his brother look almost alike." he pointed out. _

_"You know a bit about genetics, don't you?" she asked._

_"Yeah..."_

_"There are so many possible combinations and possibilities when two people have a baby." his mother had said. "The fact that Willie looks like his brother happened by chance. Okay?"_

_The boy nodded._

"Charlie!" David interupted the professor's thoughts.

"Yeah?"

"I was thinking you'd like to see some pictures your younger brother and sister" David remarked.

"That would be great!" Charlie smiled.

"Let me go get them. I'll be right back." David quickly left the office.

**2004**

On the way home, Alan remembered an argument, he had with Margaret in that restaurant, during Charlie's first winter break from Princeton.

_"He should go locally!" Alan told her, when they told the waitress their orders. "Like Cal Sci..."_

_"It's better for him, and it's what he wants!" she insisted. "Given what he has gone through it's only fair...that..."_

_"No! you're doing this out of guilt!"_

_"Guilt!"_

_"You still feel guilty about ..." Alan lowered his voice "the circumstances of his birth. You blame yourself for his emotional and social problems, thinking that if he had been my biological son, he wouldn't have them. You forget that He'd be a different boy if he were; hell he wouldn't have been a prodigy"_

_"You don't know that!"_

_"David Lev is a genius." Alan reminded her, as she choked on her water._

_"I never told you who he was...you never asked" she whispered._

_"Genetically, you made a good choice" Alan said without thinking and regretted it the moment he opened._

_"Don't say that!" she glared at him, almost in tears._

_"Sorry, I didn't mean that. I love Charlie, as much as I do, Don!" Alan said. "That's why I want him closer to home. Not to mention the fact that I miss the two of you."_

_"Charlie loves it at Princeton" she said flatly. Still angry at his comment on genetics._

_"Maybe when he's a junior, you could come visit more often?" Alan sighed._

_The food arrived, and they ate in silence. Then Alan added:_

_"You should try to visit, at least for Don's sake. I'm beginning to realize that we haven't given him enough attention"_

_"I know! But Charlie needs me there in Princeton!" she snapped. "Don knows that I love him!"_

_"You've got a hell of a way of showing it!" Alan started to get peeved. It bothered him that Margaret took him for granted. "You havn't gone to a single one of his games since he's started USC!"_

_"I can't just leave a thirteen year old alone in a college town,and he can't afford to miss class!" she argued with exasperation._

_"Can't you at least pretend to love them both equally?"_

_"How could you?"_

_"Before Charlie was born, you were much more attentive towards Don! You gave him lots of attention, worried about his temper...Now...It's not his fault you feel guilty!" Alan slammed a fork._

_"Know what?" She got up angrily. "Why don't I drive home,and you can take a cab. I'll tell the boys you went out with Art." With that, Margaret stormed out of the restaurant._

_Shaking his head, and sighing, he asked for the check, payed the bill, and called Art._

Arriving home brought Alan back to the present. He spent the night in the couch, and was awoken by a noisy Charlie mucking about in the kitchen. Alan could hear the refrigerator slam twice, Charlie's loud footsteps, and the ding of the toaster. Gingerly, he got up himself.

"Morning!" Alan said.

"Why were you on the couch?"

"I feel asleep" he lied, not wanting talk about it.

"But you were in your pajamas" Charlie pointed out with a puzzled face, as he took a spoonful of his cereal.

"Well..uh...I'm going to go bruth my teeth." Alan excused himself. Yet again, this simple activity proved painful. He missed her telling him to hurry, or how she'd come in needing something or other. Quickly, he got out of the bathroom, and got into some regular clothes. Then, he returned to the kitchen just as Charlie was on his way out the door. With a sigh, he half heartedly served himself cereal. Retirement didn't make things easy. Not only did not no have anyone to complain about work to, now he didn't have work to do at all. It's never easy.

Thankfully, lunch was better as he had it with Art.

"You should start dating again!" he told Alan. Margaret had talked made him promise to encourage Alan and set him up if someone nice, and smart was found.

"Art! Yesterday was her birthday!" Alan scolded.

"You promised her."

"I know..." he sighed.

"Taking off your wedding ring might be a good start..." Art sipped some beer.

Alan snarled sharply "When I take off my wedding ring, that's my business!"

"Okay!Okay" Art backed off. "Let's order!"

TBC


	41. Chapter 80

**2004**

"That woman has been looking at you" Art observed as they ate. "Why don't you buy her a drink?"

"Why don't you do it?" Alan deadpanned with annoyance.

"I'm not the widower here, man!"

"She looks a little young" Alan said.

"She can't be less than mid fifties" Art told him, knowing his friend was only making excuses.

After lunch, the two men went golfing.

**2005**

David came back, after a while, with the promised pictures. As he showed them to CHarlie, and talked about the memories behind the photos, the professor resented more and more all that he missed thanks to his mother.

"...and this is from Marc's High School Graduation... "David narrated, but was interupted by CHarlie.

"I could have been a part of these moments. If only my mother had told me the truth!"

"Charlie...lamentation of the past keeps you from living fully in the present" David advised him, as Charlie started to pace a bit. "We didn't have then, but we've got here and now! Enjoy it!"

"That sounds like something...my...stepfather would say"

"You can call him Dad.I don't mind" David said softly. "Why don't we go out to dinner?" It had been a while since they'd eaten and maybe a new environment would do Charlie good.

They went to one of David's favorite restaurants. Upon entering,David could not believe what he saw: Greg, his good friend, holding hands with his daughter.

"Dad? Charlie?" the young woman noticed them. Marc had left an email about the reunion.

"Greg?" Father and Son asked in shock at the same time.

TBC


	42. Chapter 81

**2005**

"Dad!Charlie?" " Dawn exclaimed. " It's good to see finally meet you!"Marc had told her the good news.

"What the hell is going on?" David demanded. He couldn't believe that his good friend, a widowerwas dating his daughter.

"As you remember, when my brother was diagnosed with Cancer, you gave me Dawn's number, so that she could help us with whatever questions we had." Greg began.

"I was just conforting him" Dawn said. "That is all!"

"The cancer might have gotten out of remission" Greg whispered. "We won't know until next week."

Charlie stood silent, remembering when Alan had told him his mother didn't have much time left.

"I don't see Greg that way! Come on Dad!" Her features hardened a bit.

"Sorry honey!" David apologized. "I'm so sorry about your brother, Greg."

"Yeah...sorry"

"Why don't you join us?" Greg offered. "So that Dawn could get to know her brother?"

"Sure!"Charlie said.The father and son duo sat down.

"Charlie and I have been showing each other pictures" David said.

"Made me realize how much I missed" Charlie commented. Anger at his mother made him sullen again.

"Charlie's letting me copy quite a few pictures!" David commented. "Especially the baby ones!"

"Did he have curls like Marc did?"

"Yeah..."

"I was sorry to hear about your mother, Charlie" Dawn said, remembering how her own mom's death devastated her.

"thanks..." Charlie realized that despite his anger, a part of him missed his mother. Why did she have to lie? As the others discussed what they were in the mood for, Charlie brooded and had another memory.

_"You're adopted!" Don teased his eight year oldbrother one evening as they both did homework. "When I was a little, a couple of elves came to the house, and asked mom and dad to adopt you in exchange for a bag of gold coins"_

_"That's not true!" Charlie pouted._

_"Don! Stop that!" Margaret came from the kitchen to the living room in a huff. "I will not have any jokes about adoption in this house! Understand?"_

_"I was just kidding!"_

_"Joke about something else!"_

_"Yes mom" thethirteen year oldgroaned, and gave his brother a 'I'll get you for this look'._

"Charlie?" David interupted his trip down memory lane. "Ready to order?"

"Give me a minute"

**2004**

Art came by a few afternoons later, with some information in his hand.

"Here!" he handed it to Alan.

"What's this?"

"Here's a place where they have speed dating for people over fifty five"

"Speed dating? You mean that thing where you sit with someone until some bell rings, then you move on to the next person?" Alan looked puzzled. "Don and Charlie should be going to that, not me!"

"You're as single as they are!" Art reminded him.

"I don't like having rushed conversations" Alan put the paper aside. The night before, he had dreamt of Margaret. She was healthy, radiant, and smiling. They were at a cruise, watching the ocean silently on a balcony. Thesea was aturquoise color, while the sun reflected on it.Suddenly, a little girl with dark curls joined them. Sadly, that was where the dream ended.

"You've isolated yourself!"

"I spend time with other people! What are you talking about?" Alan countered.

"Just with me, Stan, and your boys!" Art pointed out. "Just try it! The boys don't have to know!"

"I don't know..."

"Come on! You promised her." Art insisted.

"Fine I'll go" Alan agreed reluctantly.

TBC


	43. Chapter 82

**2005**

Charlie ordered the same thing David did.

"You, okay, Charlie?" Dawn asked.

"I'm fine..." he didn't want to burden his sister. "It's been quite a day, that's all."

David worried about Charlie. Soon, they all ordered wine, to go with their dinner. Charlie took a little too much, and began to say things he shouldn't.

**2004**

The thing took place in some community center with plain, green walls. several small tables, with two chairs on each, lined up. Women went on one side, while men went on the other.

A woman in a purple wig explained the rules, and it started.

Alan's first date was, interesting to say the least.

"I'm a pet psychic" she told him. "I love to commune with nature, run with my dogs, and explore innner meanings. You?"

"I uh...enjoy crossword puzzles, good conversation, and spending time with my sons...do you have any kids?"

"I've got ten daughtersall of which I adopted from the pound" she said. "Did did you adopt yours from the pound?

"Oh...actually..my uh..sons are human"

"I see.."

Ding! The bell rang to Alan's relief, and he hoped that the next 'date' would be better. It wasn't. She dress almost like a goth. It wasn't a good look for a woman in her sixties, at least in his opinion.

"I'm a retired city planner" Alan said when the topic went to jobs.

"I'm necromancer. I couldn't retire if I wanted to. Raising the dead is anability you gotta excercise, if ya know what I mean..."

Alan wondered if she was some prankster who had grown very bored due to retirement or just plan crazy.

"So...uh...when did you find out that you had the ability?" Alan asked lamely.

"My dog died, and the next day, I woke up and saw her sleeping next to me. Talk about road kill!"

Finally, the bell rang again. The next woman looked look a good possibility.

"I've also got two sons!" she told him at one point. "One of them is a cop in Boston. I worry so much!"

"I know what you mean! One of my sons is in the F.B.I."

"What can a parent do, but hope that we raised him right."

Suddenly, an angry man in his eighties, with an ugly toupeeinterupted.

"What the hell are you doing here?" he demanded.

"She's not five years old!" Alan got protective and assumed he was her dad..

"Please leave the premises" the purple wigged woman said.

"She's my wife!" he yelled.

Sheepishly, she got up, and left with him. All the while, he subjected her to a tirade. This put the woman in charge to panic mode as now the number was uneven. Alan, tired of the whole thing, volunteered to leave.

TBC


	44. Chapter 83

**2004**

Art called him the next afternoon.

"How did it go?"

"Terrible!" Alan complained. "The first two women I met were nuts, and let's just say that the third had objection from family members, namely her husband."

"I'm sorry to hear that man! Art comiserated. "Maybe you could join a club or something?"

"Maybe" Alan sighed.

"You could go today!"

"I've got to volunteer at the shelter" Alan reminded him.

"Maybe you'll meet a rich widowed benefacteress." Art teased.

Alan rolled his eyes.

**2005**

He turned to Dawn"You're lucky to have had a mother who didn't lie to you"

Taken aback, Dawn, Greg, and David didn't quite know what to say.

"She made me miss so much!"he began to complain again. The alcohol made the anger, resentment, and hurt come out more. He turned to David"Would it have killed her to let me see you on the weekends at least! It was our right!"

David couldn't help but think about how it might have been harder for Alan to deal with. Neighbors would have noticed the sight of an outsider picking up Charlie every weekend.

"If nothing else, your mother loved you!" Dawn argued, though part of her kind of blamed Margaret, as she always sense the woman was the reason the reunion Dad wanted was delayed for so long.

"It was a love based on lies!" Charlie snapped and drank some more. The trio looked at each other. Greg was reminded of David when he got angry.

"At least you had your mother for longer than I did!" Dawn pointed out. She had been a teenager when her mother was killed by the drunk driver. "And she left everything she knew to go with you to Princeton.That's gotta mean something"

"She only gave me more attention because of my genius." Charlie had drunk so much that he had gotten cynical and even more brooding. "I was a mistake!"

"Don't you say that!" David scolded him. "You are not a mistake!"

"I'm the result of an affair! How am I supposed to feel!" Charlie snapped. "How would you guys feel if you had found out that everything you thought you knew about yourself was a lie and that you were the product of a affair?"

"Charlie, remember what I said about trying to focus on the here and Now?" David reminded him. Charlie ignored him and drank more.David continued softly"Your mother was human, like everyone else. Kids don't come with instruction manuels."

"She had twenty nine years to realize that I should have been told the truth!" Charlie argued. "Sure I would have been angry, but it's better than finding out by accident!"

"Sometimes, it's easier to deal with things with time and distance." Greg remarked. "Maybe she worried about how it would have affected your relationship with your stepfather and older brother..."

"Don" David said.

"I mean, would Don have felt as responsible for you, if he had known you already had two siblings?" Greg continued.

"How would Alan have handled everyone including you, knowing about this?" David added in agreement with David.

"I've got an idea!" Dawn suddenly said.

"What?"

"Why don't you write your mother a letter, telling her what and how you feel. Then, you can put it in a bottle,and throw it into the ocean?" she hated to see her brother in pain.

"Isn't that littering?" Charlie didn't really feel like writing letters.

"That's what I did when my mother died, and it did wonders!"

Instead of answering Charlie brooded some more.

TBC


	45. Chapter 84

**2005**

Dawn, David, and Greg felt bad for Charlie. Gently, the artist took away the glass.

"Would you have done the same thing if you had been in my mother's place?" Charlie asked Dawn.

"I uh..." Dawn wanted to say that she wouldn't have cheated to begin with, but it sounded judgemental and she didn't want to be judgemental on a woman who had passed. "would think about my child first and foremost" That seemed like a safe answer, and it made sense.

"My mother should have done that for me!" Charlie continued bitterly.

"She loved you so much!" David reminded him.

Just then, the food came, but the professor just picked at his food. David hated to see his son like this.

"Charlie, you're mother's gone.What good is it to hold a grudge against her?" the artist asked.

"That's easy for you to say" Charlie sighed.

"I think Dawn's idea of the letter is an excellent one" Greg commented. "You should try it sometime."

"I trusted her completly! She was a friend, confidante and mother all in one person!" Charlie's voice started to get louder with emotion. "Then, I find out that she broke her wedding vows, and lied to me about who I was!"

Dawn could feel the stares of people sitting nearby.

**2004**

At the volunteer shelter, Alan spent his break with a woman in her fifties talking about this and that.

"I'm such a crossword addict, myself! I could do them all day!" she told him.

"So could I. There's nothing like the sense of accomplishment you get when you'll filled it up with the right answers" Alan said.

"Tell me about it!"

Eventually, the talk turned to their kids.

"Did you ever wish to have a daughter?" she asked.

" I wanted three children, but my second son turned out to be a math prodigy"

"Really?"

"He was doing advanced multiplication at the age of four and went to college at the age of thirteen. Now he's a professor at Cal Sci, and a math consultant for law enforcement agencies" Alan poured coffee for himself and her.

"My older son is also a professor, but in literature.Marcia's daughter is an artist.The two grew up together."

"My sister and I also had our kids around the same time" Alan enjoyed this woman's company, and was about to ask her out.

"Actually...Marcia is my partner"

"Oh..." Alan made himself sound casual. So much for that.

TBC


	46. Chapter 85

**2005**

The four ate in silence.Charlie continued to brood. David,Dawn,and Greg didn't know what more to tell him.

"When I was little" Charlie began suddenly. "I asked my mother why Don and I didn't really look like each other because a friend of his looked a lot like his brother.She told there there are many possibilites there were when two people had a baby, but neglected to mention the variations that can come from sharing only one parent!"

"Carrying this anger isn't going to do you any good" David advised gently.

Charlie just ignored him and moved his food around.

"Why don't we all go to a movie?" David suggested. Maybe Charlie needed some distraction for a little while?

"Sounds good to me!" Dawn agreed."Let's watch a Monty Python one!"

"I don't really feel like watching a movie." Charlie said.

David mused inwardly"Charlie really opened a pandora's box with that drawing!"

**2004**

"So...did you ask Nina out?" Art asked the following weekend while they both golfed.

"I was going to, but I changed my mind" Alan said while choosing a club for his next turn..

"Why?" Art asked.

"She's uh...already seeing someone" his pride prevented him from telling Art the whole truth.

"That sucks, man!" Art told his friend in sympathy. "At least you found out before asking!"

"Yeah..."

Don didn't do so well in the dating department either. He was going out with a charming, forensic account who worked a floor above him. Things were going well, until after the third time he spent the night at her place. Awaking to an empty bed, he found a note that said

_"I've gone to the market so that I can make you a kickass breakfast. Last night was wonderful."_

Grinning from ear to ear, he lay back on the pillow. Suddenly, he heard a male voice.

"Babe! I'm baaaaaaaaaaack! "

Before Don could react, a young man in his twenties came into the bedroom.

"Who the fuck are you?" he demanded with rage. The only thing covering Don were the silk sheets.

"I uh...am one of Bri's gay friends." Don said quickly. His gun was in the floor somewhere with his pants."My place is being painted, and she let me come here for the night with a date.

"What's with skirt then?" the man picked it up and angrily showed it to him.

"My date and I were role playing"

Just then, Bri ran into the room.

"I can explain!" she said.

As the couple argued, Don got dress at warp speed, and left the apartment. His ego had been bruised, plus he was disapointed and hurt.

Later on as he had dinner at the house, Alan asked him

"Are you okay? You've hardly eaten anything"

"I'm fine" Don insisted.

To add insult to injury, they had to work together on a racketeering case. At one point, she tried to approach him.

"Don...about what happened..." she began.

"Let's focus on the work!" he told her firmly, and left for the breakroom.

TBC


	47. Chapter 86

**2004**

With some regret, Alan remembered how, Don was affected when the couple first found out that Charlie was a prodigy.

_Charlie's needs were overwhelming, tutors had to be hired, and he needed lots of attention. This began to affect Don. This became appearent when Alan alone went to talk to his older son's third grade teacher. Margaret had to stay home to oversee the tutors._

_"Mr Eppes?" a woman in her twenties asked._

_"Miss Fine" The two shook hands and sat down.Soon they got to business__"You seemed concerned over the phone" _

_"Don is a very intelligent boy. His vocabulary is advanced, and he asks very good questions. However, lately, he hasn't shown much enthusism for his work._

_"Oh?"_

_Ms. Fine took out some papers._

_"Here is a book report he turned in. Read it and you'll know what I mean" she handed it to Alan._

_"The Rose that belonged to Megan Lee was a dum book."The report began. "Megan is a cri babi. Roses die faster than doogs." With that the report ended._

_"His math has been suffering as well. Look what he wrote on the math problems." the teacher continued._

_Alan looked at a math work sheet and saw little stick figures around the numbers. He__felt guilty. Donnie's homework sometimes got last place. However,Alan was determined to fix that. _

_He explained."It's just that my wife and I just found out that our younger son is a prodigy. It's been overwhelming for us." _

_"This isn't the kind of workDon is capable of.." she shook her head. "He's got lots of potential too!"_

_"I know..." Alan vowed then and there that no matter how tired he was, he'd help Don more with his homwork instead of leaving it to Margaret._

_"And his behavior is out of sorts"_

_"Oh?"_

_"He makes paper planes instead of doing his classwork"_

_Alan promised "I'll talk to him, and make sure he gets all the help he needs"_

_At home, Alan had a talk with Donnie at the dinning room table._

_"I talked to Miss Fine. She says that you're not doing your work. Why?"_

_"I dunno" the boy shrugged._

_"And why did you write a two sentence book report?"_

_"The book was dumb"_

_"You made that very clear, but you could have at least said why it was dumb"_

_"I did! Megan was a cry baby! I put that!"_

_"Let's make a deal, you will not watch T.V, or play until I've checked your homework. Is that understoood?"_

_"Okay" the boy nodded._

_"Donnie! Look!" little Charlie interupted them. _

_"I'm talking to your brother, Charlie, give him a minute" Alan said gently._

_The boy pouted, but waited._

_"And maybe you should ask for help on your homework instead of drawing on it" Alan suggested._

_"Yes Dad."_

_"Donnie! Come!" Charlie got impatient._

_"Go see what your brother wants to show you" the man advised his son. Don, with a sigh, followed Charlie._

_"We can't lose sight of him" Margaret said when both boys had gone to the far end of the living rom._

_"I know" Alan put a hand on her shoulder._

**2005**

After a while, the server came to offer deserts.

"Do you have a desert that helps people deal with being lied to?" Charlie asked without thinking. The alcohol was still affecting him.

"Chocolate has been known to do that" the server talked from experiance.

David said."I'll uh..get the carrot cake."

Dawn took out a pen from her purse, and spread out a napkin.

"Why don't you write your mother that letter?"

"What good is it?She's gone!" Charlie said skeptically.

"You're bottling things up" Dawn pointed out. "Getting them off your chest is an important first step."

"That's easy for you to say" the professor gave her an annoyed look.

"What's it gonna cost ya?" David insisted in support of what his daughter had said. "At least do one sentence!"

Charlie shook his head.

TBC


	48. Chapter 87

**2004**

Don sighed. It was Mother's Day, but he had been called and so he had to go to work at four in the morning. He had wanted to go visit his mom's grave with his Dad and brother, but now would have to make do sneaking away sometime during the day. It was the least he could do. She was his mother.

Terry understood, and agreed to cover for him. With that, he went to her grave.

"I miss you mom" he said sadly, while putting in the flowers. Then he began to regret all the Mother's Days he didnt' come to visit because of work. "I'm so sorry!" He gently touched the gravestone, and left.

That evening, Charlie brooded and just stared into space. He hadn't come to grips with his mother's death.

"Dinner's ready" Alan said gently.

"I'm not hungry" Charlie said flatly and shook his head.

Come to think of it, Alan didn't really feel hungry either. He started to remember her first mother's day. Don was an infant.

_The trio went to breakfast. It was packed, and they had to wait quite a while for a seat._

_"Ga!" the baby started to get fidigity in Margaret's arms. Alan took him and gently, but suddenly, lifted him._

_"Whoa!" he told little Donnie._

_"Ga!" the baby smiled._

_Then they played peek a boo._

_"boo!' Alan would say as he uncovered his face and little Donnie would laugh._

_"He's lucky to have you as a father" Margaret said with a grin._

_"Now all he needs is a brother to play with" Alan thought, but knew better than to bring up the subject._

_Then, a couple with twins about Don's age came in. Alan and Margaret looked at each other._

_"Poor woman!" Margaret comiserated in a whisper._

_"Imagine having two Dons around the house!" Alan shuddered. _

_Finally, they got their table, were seated, put Donnie in a high chair, and looked at the menus._

**2005**

After a while, David decided to take his son home. When they arrived Charlie grumbled

"My love and purchase of that house is based on a lie!" He looked bitter.

"Well, it's the only one you've got" David said gently, and wrote down his number on a scrap of paper and. "Call me."

The artist walked him to the door. Charlie clumsily opened got the key from his pocket and opened the door.

"Charlie?" Alan was still up.

"He had a little too much to drink." David said. "The trauma of this day has been hard"

"I'll make sure he rests." Alan quickly lead Charlie to a sofa and gave the artist Charlie's cell and home phone.

"Call anytime" Alan said.

"I just might take you up on it.He was so upset at dinner" David nodded.

"He was very close to his mother" Alan whispered.

"I hope he can eventually forgive her" David mused.

"So do I, David, So do I"

TBC


	49. Chapter 88

**2005**

Charlie woke up the next morning in his bed with a hangover, and sighed. Gingerly he got up, brushed his teeth, and went to the kitchen.

"Good morning Charlie!" Alan said, looking upfrom hisnewspaper at the dining room."How are you?"

"I've got a headache the size of a planet!" the mathematician groaned.

"Here's some orange juice" Alan gave him a glass. "Hungry?"

"No!" Charlie shook his head.

"David says that you were very upset at dinner" Alan began.

"Everyone has been lying to me!" Charlie's answer showed that Alan had hit a nerve.

"David was worried about you" Alan said gently. The two were sitting next to each other. Through the windows, the skies showed a gray cloudiness.

"How old was I when you found out?" Charlie asked suddenly after some more dark brooding.

"Charlie...does that really matter?" Alan turned his focus to the paper.

"It does to me!" the professor insisted.

"Four" Alan said softly, bracing himself. Something told him that he wasn't going to like where this conversation was going.

"So you had time to develop the bond." Charlie mused. "What if you had found out when mom had been pregnant with me? Would you have asked her to have an abortion?They were legal then."

"Charlie...I..." Alan didn't know what to say.

"Or would you have left her? I mean Don was pretty young...or was he the reason you stayed?"

"I stayed because of the three of you!" Alan felt hurt.

Charlie's next question was the last straw for the poor man "Would you have stayed if I hadn't been a prodigy?"

Hurt, angry, and in pain, Alan got up, and left the house. How could Charlie imply such a thing?

"Dad!" Charlie called his father, part of him regretted saying what he did.

Soon, he decided to talk to his mother's wedding picture again.

"David seems like a great guy! Why didn't you introduce him to me? It was my right!" he began and paced. "I missed so much with my grandfather, Marc, and Dawn. It wasn't my fault that you felt guilty! They were my family! I had the right to know them! You were always talking about the importance of family, yet you denied me the right to be with members of it! Did you need to forget that I was the result of a mistake? ..." His 'talk' with Margaret was interupted by a phone call from David.

TBC

Author's note:I'm trying to finish this fic, so my focus will be on 2005. However, bear in mind that Charlie is not gonna forgive Margaret easily.


	50. Chapter 89

**2005**

"How are you? David asked with concern.

"Could be better" Charlie shrugged. "Da...Alan and I hard a bit of an argument"

"You can call him Dad in front of me. He's earn that right" David gently corrected him. He knew that Alan loved Charlie as much as he did Don.

"I said a few things I shouldn't have" the professor admitted reluctantly.

"You need to apologize A.S.A.P.!" David advised.

"I know..." Charlie said sadly.

"Let's hang up so you can do that!" David could only imagine what Charlie had said, but he had a feeling that it was something hurtful.

Soon, they were off the phone, and Charlie brooded in the living room. After a while, an angry Don came in.

"What the hell did you do to Dad?" he demanded. "I saw him in a restaurant, looking very hurt! He wouldn't tell me what was wrong. When I wentto Cal Sci , andAmita told me that you didn't show up for class, I figured it had to do with you!"

"It doesn't matter now" Charlie shook his head, realizing he hadn't let anyone know he wasn't gonna show up.Oh well, Amita would probably put up a sign for him."I need to apologize"

"Damn right you do!" Don glared at him. "He was more of a father to you than that artist ever was! He handled what mom did with a lot of class! Most men would not have done the same thing!"

"Mom could have aborted me" Charlie mused yet again. "It was legal in nineteen seventy five. That would have been the least risky option. Unless she had major complications, Dad would've never found out..."

Don interupted"Charlie, there's no point in dwelling on this."

"Did she keep me out of love, or hope that her husband was my father?" Charlie brooded.

"Maybe her gut told her to keep you? Look, man, Mom loved you so much!" Don told him. "That's what matters!"

"David and Dawn, my sister think that I should write a letter to mom"

"That sounds like a good idea buddy" Don remembered his most recent visit to Margaret gravesite. "Or you could visit her grave and say what you feel. Trust me, it'll help."

"Sounds like you're speaking from experiance"

"This isn't about me!" Don insisted, and sat next to his brother. "Maybe mom didn't want to you live between two households?"

"I had a right to get to know my father!" Charlie contended.

The doorbell rang, and Charlie went to open the door. Larry stood on the other side of it.

TBC


	51. Chapter 90

**2005**

"Amita told me that you didn't show up for classes" Larry said as he came in. "I couldn't help but think that your absence had something to do with your biological father. " He worried that maybe the artist had done or said something to disapoint or anger Charlie.

"He and I got along great! My mother is the reason why I'm absent" Charlie gave a look to his mother's wedding picture. "I've missed so much thanks to her!"

"Your mother loved you. Isn't that what matters in the end?" Larry pointed out.

"Larry's right!" Don assented.

"I didn't get to grow up with Dawn and Marc!" Charlie countered.

"But you grew up with twoloving parents and a brother who would do anything for you!" Larry told him.

"I had a right to know them!" Charlie continued.

"Why don't you and I pay mom's grave a visit" Don suggested. Maybe following David's suggestion would do his brother good.

"No! I already went for her birthday" Charlie didn't want to go.

"Perhaps, it'll do you good?" Larry suggested, knowing how sometimes his friend bottled things up.

Suddenly, the phone rang, and Charlie answered it.

"Hello?"

"It's Brian, from the homeless shelter. It's about your father.."

"What?"

"He came early to volunteer, but then he had a heart attack."

"NO!" Charlie couldn't believe it. Despite everything, he loved Alan like a father.

"What's going on?" Don demanded.

Charlie got the name of the hospital, and hung up the phone.

"Dad's had a heart attack!" Charlie said,

"Oh no!" Larry lamented. He regarded Alan as a dear friend.

"It's my fault!" Charlie wailed. "It's my fault!" The mathematician felt even more guilty about what he had said. Then, he started to feel like a terrible person for the way he had been treating Alan, as a villian. The man had done so much for him! Why did Charlie have to act this way?

"Let's calm down!" Don ordered, he too was worried sick. "And go see Dad.We're going in my car"

Quickly, the trio went into Don's black SUV.

"Dad stopped going to the doctor after mom died" Charlie mused, still in shock.

"She was the one who nagged him into going" Don shook his head.

"I should've nagged him about it!" Charlie lamented. "I live with the man!" He started to realize who unhealthy his father cooked, steaks at least once a week, one token vegetable per meal, nachos to eat during games...Too boot, the retiree didn't excercise.

Don, felt responsible as well. Hadn't his paternal grandfather had two heart attacks, and die from a stroke? Hadn't he promised his mother to take care of Alan? Wasn't he the one who enjoyed Alan's fattening meals without thinking that maybe his father should eat healthier?

Not soon enough, they arrived at the parking lot of the hospital, and were on their way to see their father. Hopefully, he would be okay.

They finally found the right floor, and were able to talk to a doctor after some waiting.

"How is he?" Don asked.

"Luckily , some of the volunteers at that shelter include an LAFD paramedic and a retired cardiologist" she said. "The ambulance came in good time, and the damage was minimal"

"When can we see him?" Charlie had some much he wanted to say.

"You can see him now, but one at a time"

Don generously said, "You first, buddy"

TBC


	52. Chapter 91

**2005**

Tenatively, he followed a nurse to his father's room. When he arrived, it unerved him to see Alan in a hospital gown and some tubes up his nose.The retireelooked so vulnerable and fragile right then.

"Hey..." Charlie said lamely.

"I look worse than I feel" Alan tried to assure him.

. "I'm so sorry!" Charlie began. "About everything!"

"It's okay, Son" Alan told him gently.

"When I got that call, I realized that you **are** my father!" Charlie said. "In every way that matters!"

"I should get heart attacks more often" Alan deadpanned to relieve the tension. He began to understand why Margaret had developed a morbid sense of humor when she became ill.

"Don't say that!"

"Sorry."

"We're gonna eat healthier from now on!" Charlie continued, wanting to be strong for his father. "I'm going to throw away all the junkfood, and there will be no more steak dinners!"

"Guess I'll have to kiss Don's visits goodbye" Alan joked. He wasn't looking forward to having to eat healthier.

"Dad!" Charlie scolded. "Don's out in the waiting room, would you like me to call him?"The professor knew that his brother was anxious to see Alan.

"Yeah!"

Charlie left the room, and before Alan knew it, Don was there. Like his brother, seeing his Dad in a hospital bed, had a deep effect on him. Alan didn't look like the man the two brothers had growun up with. Plus, it reminded him of when his mother was in the hospital. Don tried to reminde himself that this was not the same thing. Alan was here for a heart attack,and would be fine, if he took care of his health.

"How are you dad?"

"I'm fine..."

Don told his father diplomatically."I talked to the doctor,while Charlie was here, she says you need to improve you diet, and excercise more"

"My grandfather ate like I did, and he lived until his nineties!" Alan groaned.

"Your Dad wasn't so lucky" Don reminded him gently.

"I know..."

Don vowed then and there to take better care of his father, even if it meant eating baby carrots during games when he went to the house.

"She wants to keep you here overnight" Don said to Alan's annoyance. "Just to be on the safe side."

"I'm better off at home!" Alan complained. Hospitals reminded him of Margaret's illness. He had spent so much time in them for operations and chemo.

"I know it's hard, Dad, but it's for your own good. Charlie and I will keep you company" Don promised.

Alan smiled, grateful to have such caring sons.

TBC


	53. Chapter 92

**2005**

Alan was released the next day. The three men went out to dinner to celebrate. Unfortunatly, the poor man didn't get to enjoy his first non hospital meal, as the boys wouldn't let him order what he wanted. So, Alan was stuck with eating a chicken Ceasar salad. Then, Charlie dragged him to a nutritionist and a cardiologist and then, he was surprised one morning to see a young man, come into the house during Alan's lousy breakfast of toast, and fruit salad.Alan would have liked to eat grapefruit, but he couldn't have it with his cholestorol medicine.

"Dad, I'd like you to meet Gunther, your new personal trainer" Charlie knew that on his own, Alan wouldn't do an iota of excercise.

"How are you, Mr.Eppes" the young man said in a German accent and shook his hand.

Alan didnt want a personal trainer, but knew better than to say so aloud. So, he tried an indirect approach by asking"Do you have much experiance with accomodating the needs ofheart attack victims?"

"Actually he does" Charlie assured his father. He had done his research.

"I was thinking we could meet in the mornings when you are not volunteering" Gunther said.

"I suppose so"

"Maybe you two could start right away?" Charlie gave his father an expectant look.

With an inward sigh, Alan went upstairs and changed into some sweats.

Soon, the two were in the back yard.

"First off, we're going to stretch. That's the key to any excerise program." Gunther began to do some stretches and Alan reluctantly followed suit. Then, they went jogging around the neighborhood.

"Pick up the pace a bit!" Gunther said.

"If I get another heart attack, my sons are gonna kick your ass!" Alan tiredly retorted.

"You're going almost at walking speed"

Alan rolled his eyes. After some more jogging ,they did some cool down stretches. Finally, Alan could sit down and eat, a lousy salad made by Charlie, that had too much vineager.

"Is something wrong, Dad?" Charlie asked.

"I'd like some salad with my vinager." Alan made a face.

"Sorry."

"Where' s the salt.." Alan asked instinctively. Maybe that would balance it out.

"I hid it"

"Charlie!" Alan groaned.

"How did it go with Gunther?"

"He pushes me too hard!" Alan complained.

"I'll talk to him" Charlie promised. In reality, he wanted to get both sides of the story.

"This could use avocados" Alan pouted inwardly.

TBC


	54. Chapter 93

After some half hearted mouthfuls, Alan gently remarked.

"Don said that he's been trying to get you to go visit your mother's grave, figures it'll do you good" Alan had agreed with his eldest son's assesment.

"I went for her birthday" Charlie took a forkful of his own salad.

"If you can forgive me, why not her?"

"You were a victim as much as me or Don" Charlie explained.

"Your mother loved you so much!"

"She lied to me!"

"I'm sure that if your mother were with us, she'd tell you how sorry she was"

"Sorry that I found out!" Charlie said bitterly.

"You can't be angry at her forever" Alan told him. "Believe me, she'd be devastated at just how hurt you are!"Maybe in retrospect he and Margaret should have told Charlie the truth at least when he was older. Hindsight is always twenty twenty.

"She should have told me!"

"Dwelling on what should have happened isn't going to do you any good" Alan put his fork down.

"David thinks I should write a letter to mom" Charlie sighed.

"I totally agree!" Alan commented. "Why don't you?"

"You're not eating your salad!" Charlie said out of concern and to change the subject.

"Forget the salad, let's talk about you!" Alan hated to see him like this. "Go visit her, at least for my sake?"

"I talked to her photo" Charlie admitted, if only to get Alan off his back.

"Then maybe write that letter?"

"I gotta go to my office" Charlie muttered, and got up. He didn't want to talk about it.

"It's Saturday!" Alan reminded him.

"I've got papers to grade, andlessons to plan" Charlie went out the door.

With a sigh, Alan dumped the rest of the salad, and went to his favorite burger place, "In and Out".

"What can I get you, sir?" a young woman in a white uniform asked. The smells of grilling patties, french fries, and grilled onions wafted through the air, making Alan's mouth water.

"A number three meal, with grilled onions" Alan requested, and gave her a twenty. He had just gone to the ATM.

"For here or to go?" she asked

"For here"

She gave him an empty coke cup,to fill at the fountain. The meal came with a drink.

Soon, but not soon enough, his 'number three' meal came; it consisted of a cheese burger with two meat patties, and slices of cheese, and fries. Gleefully, Alan picked up his tray, and was about to sit down,when he heard Don's voice

"Dad?"

TBC


	55. Chapter 94

**2005**

"Don..." Alan said lamly. Why did his eldest have to show up here and now? Damn it! Talk about bad timing!

"Is that for me? Thanks!" Don grabbed the burger and took a bite before Alan could protest. "I mean, you couldn't possibly want this double double given that you just had a heart attack"

"You just want the free food!" Alan scoffed with annoyance. "Looks who's talking to me about eating healthy! Mr. Steaks all day everyday!"

"I didn't have a heart attack!"

"You've got your grandfather's genes, same as me!" Alan pointed out. Come to think of it, Don should eat healthier as well. He started to show a bit of the middle age gut, and had the same risk factors as Alan.

"But they're diluted!" Don smirked as they both sat down. The agent also started to eat the fries after putting lots of salt on them.Alan looked wistfully at the food."Anyway, how is Charlie?" He knew how upset Charlie still was about what Margaret did.

"He's at Cal Sci" Alan sighed.

"But it's Saturday!" Don remembered worridly. The agent had decided to go to In and Out before visiting the junk food free house.

"I know...I tried to talk to him after my session with the personal trainer..." Alan began.

"Wait! You got a personal trainer?" Don gave his father a puzzled look.

The retiree explained"Charlie hired him."

"Oh..."

"The man pushed me too hard!" Alan consoled himself by drinking some of the soda, though, Don grabbed that too.

"What? He made you do more than one situp?" Don teased, knowing his father, and trusting Charlie to hire someone sensitive to the special needs of heart attack victims.

"He wanted me to jog faster than I was comfortable with!" Alan complained, he felt achy just thinking about it. The problem was that the retiree wasn't used to pushing his body like that.

"That's his job; to push you a little beyond you comfort zone" Don reminded him, as he savored the double double.

"Anyway...Charlie's anger at his mother is not doing him any good" Alan continued.

"They were very close, he's bound to forgive her sometime, right?" Don grabbed some more fries, dipped them in ketchup, and stuffed them in his mouth.

"That's the problem! Charlie feels very much betrayed." Alan pointed out.

"Maybe I should talk to him again?" Don suggested.

"Let him be" Alan overuled his eldest "Maybe he needs time alone to think about things"

"I know this place that Megan says makes the best veggie burgers, Why don't I get you one and bring it to the house?" Don offered. That was better than no burger at all right? Maybe eating that would be good consolation for his dad?

Alan remarked impassively and with doubt. "If they are so good,why did you take my burger?"

TBC


	56. Chapter 95

Charlie, for his part, brooded in his office at CalSci.

"Why did she lie?" he lamented for the upteenth time while pacing.

Evening came, and he was still there. Suddenly, he heard a knock on the door, but didn't answer.

"It's me! Your father!" Alan said from the other side of the door.

"Dad? Sorry! I didn't know it was you" Charlie quickly opened the door.

"I made you a chicken breast sandwhich" Alan gave him a paper bag.

"Thanks Dad!" Charlie said, though he didn't feel hungry.

"Charlie, life is too short for you to be holding on to your anger" Alan began. Margaret's illness and his heart attack had reminded him of how fleeting life is. It pained him greatly to see Charlie angry at his mother.

"Dad..please" Charlie shook his head and sighed. He couldn't bring himself to forgive her, not yet.

"Maybe you should see a therapist?" Alan suggested, figuring that it was what Charlie needed. Nothing else was working, after all.

"I'm fine"

"Do it for me?" Alan requested again.

"Dad..."

"It hurts me to see you like this!"

Charlie saw the pain and pleading in his father's eyes, and said "Fine...I'll go to therapy". Given that the man had almost died, the mathematician didn't have the heart to say no.

"You won't regret it!" Alan smiled happily. For Charlie, that made the inconvenience worthwhile.

Reluctantly on Monday,Charlie made an appointment for Friday around four.

"How are you Charles?" Larry asked, upon visiting his friend's office.

"Fine, I'm going to see a therapist" Charlie sighed.

"Really?" Larry gave him a surprised look.

"I'm doing it for my Dad. He insisted that I go"

"Oh..." Larry nodded.

-----------------------------------------------

Friday came, and Charlie was in the waiting room, filling out a questionaire. When he finally finished it, he turned it in to the receptionist, and then finally it was his turn.

When, they were settled ina gray consulation room, Charlie began reluctantly.

"I came here on my Dad's suggestion...see I uh...just found out that my Dad is my stepfather."

"How did you find out?" a red haired therapist asked.

" To make a long story short,I overheard my father talk to my mother's wedding picture, telling her that he loved me despite knowing 'the truth'. I demanded to know what that meant, and he told me that my mother had an affair. Eventually, he also revealed my biological father's identity."

"That must have been a shock for you" she comiserated.

"Yeah it was."Charlie said uncomfortably.

"Have you confronted your mother?"

"She passed away recently, before I found out"

"I'm sorry to hear that"

"She should have told me before she passed!" Charlie's anger arose yet again.

"How do you admit to something like that?" she asked, playing devil's advocate.

"I had a right to know!" On and on Charlie ranted until it was the end of the session. He promised to return. When he left, the therapist had an idea.

"Maybe some role playing is in order..."

With, that, she went to her next client.

TBC


	57. Chapter 96

At dinner that night, Alan asked.

"How did it go?"

"Okay" Charlie shrugged.

"I know it's hard, but in the long run, you'll be better off" Alan assured his youngest.

The mathematician had his doubts.

----------------------------------------------------------

Charlie met with the therapist a week later.

"Today, we're going to do a little roleplaying" she announced.

"Roleplaying?" Charlie didn't like the sound of it.

"I'll pretend to be your mother, and you can express what you feel"

"How can you possibly know what my mother would say?" Charlie asked with annoyance.

She suggested "Then you can pretend to be your mother"

"I don't know..." He didn't agree with what his mother had done so how could he argue her side?

"I guess we could save it for another time" she didn't want to push him.

"Yeah, let's" Charlie quickly agreed.

The therapist folded her hands "So...how are you getting along with your biological father?"

"Great! We hang out, and catch up" Charlie said. "I'm getting to know him, Dawn, and Marc"

"How are things with your stepfather?"

"The personal trainer told me that he's making some progress, and I think he's getting used to the new diet" Charlie smiled.

"You got him a personal trainer?"

"Yeah, otherwise, he wouldn't do any exercise " Charlie explained. "When he had his heart attack, I realized that I did love him like a father, and I learned not to take him for granted"

"So you forgave him?"

"Yeah. He was a victim of what my mother did, just like me and Don" Charlie explained.

"Have you ever thought about what you would have done in your mother's place?"

"I would have told my kid the truth!" Charlie quickly told her. "As soon as he or she were old enough!"

"How do you think your child would have felt?"

"Hurt, but not as hurt as finding out by accident as an adult!" Charlie told her firmly. The therapist could sense the rage within, and realized again, that Charlie had a long road ahead of recovery, let alone forgiving his mother.

TBC


	58. Chapter 97

Finally, for Charlie, the session ended. At dinner that night, Alan had an idea. If only his younger son could remember the good times and the wonderful relationship he had with Margaret, then maybe the path could be paved for forgiveness. Thankfully, Don was there as well .

"Charlie, do you remember when we all went to San Fransico when you were ten?" Alan carefully began his plan.

"I guess" Charlie shrugged.

"That was a great trip!" Alan beamed. "Going as a family, riding the cable cars..."

"Yeah it was fun" Charlie admitted.

"Mom invented all sorts of games during the drive there"the agent smiled.

"Don complained because he didn't wanna be without Jenna" Charlie teased as Don gave him a look.

"I remember" Alan was happy to see his younger son in a slightly lighter mood.

"Those were great times!" Don said wistfully, missing his mother.

"We'd split sometimes, when you and your mother would go to museums .She loved going tothem with you" Alan added. " and it gave Don and me some father son time.."

"It would have been nice to go to museums with my biological father" Charlie began, as Don and Alan looked at each other. "Not to mention getting to go on trips with him, Dawn, Marc, and my grandfather"

"So much for that" Alan thought.

-------------------------------------------------

"How is therapy going?" David asked Charlie the next day, as the two got lunch at one of CalSci's cafeterias.

"Okay..." Charlie shrugged and got himself a tray, as well as a plate and some utencils. He didn't want to really talk about it.

"I went to a therapist after my wife died" David remembered. "It was my father's idea. He didnt' believe that work was enough therapy"

"Did it help?"

"Some...at least with my depression at the time." the artist shared ,while picking pizza, and pasta with cream sauce.

Charlie advised suddenly after a bit, as if he didn't want to talk about loss and grieving."You should eat healthier"

"It affects my art if I just eat salad." he said as Charlie rolled his eyes. When they were done picking their food, the two men sat down. Soon, Larry came to join them.

"Hey Larry!" David smiled. He had sensed that the physicist was a good friend to his son.

"How are you, David?"

"Great, trying to eat this so called pizza" David frowned at his food. "The cheese looks funky"

"The key is to eat the pizza within five minutes after it leaves the oven. "Larry advised.

David decided."I'll stick to the pasta then..."

------------------------------------

Meanwhile, at the house, Alan had a talked to Margaret's wedding picture.

"I know that it's painful that he hasn't forgiven you, but he will, I promise. Charlie just needs time." A while later, he made himself a ribeye steak sandwhich with lots of mayo.Then, ate it in front of the T.V. For him, a treat once in a while was no big deal and felt that he deserved it as Gunther had pushed him hard that morning. Suddenly, the door opened, and before Alan could do anything, an angry Charlie demanded.

"What are you doing?"

Something told Alan that Charlie wasn't going to be as patient about this as Don had been.

TBC


	59. Chapter 98

Charlie glared at his father."Don't you realize how bad that is for you?"

Alan responded "Once in a while isn't gonna kill me!"

Charlie got angrier"You promised to stick to the diet!"

"But you're too strict!"

"I'm following the advice of the cardiologist and the nutritionist!" The mathematician quickly and furiously grabbed the sandwhich from the T.V table. "Look at this! Could you have put on any more mayo?You're not even supposed to have steak!"

"Charlie..."

"You broke your promise!"!" his voice got louder. The two men were face to face. Charlie really cared about Alan's well being.

"If eating steaks is wrong, I don't wanna be right!"

"Dad!"

Just then, Don came in, and heard the fighting.

"Maybe the diet could be modified a litte, give Dad some slack" Don suggested calmly, as he stole the sandwhich from Charlie, who was too upset to care, at the moment, and began to eat it. "But he still has to eat healthy"

"He's already had one heart attack,and he's got genetic risk factors!" Charlie countered.

"A realistic modified diet that Dad is able to follow is better than none at all!" Don pointed out with his mouth full. He and worried that the tensions from before would return.

Charlie scolded Alan"You can't depend on the lipitor to do all the work!"

"Chuck's right" Don nodded after swallowing another bite.

"Mom would want you to take better care of yourself!" Charlie told his father with deep emotions of concern and love. "because Don and I need you!"

Alan, taken aback and touched, didn't say anything, and the three men looked at each other. The retiree then and there, decided, for his sons, to eat healthier.

"I'll make more of an effort tostick to the diet" he promised from his heart. "I'm sorry!"

"Really?" Charlie was surprised at how Alan just did that.

"Yes!"

The mathematician glared at his brother. "Do you think it's fair to eat that in front of Dad?"

"Uh...well uh...I'll eat it outside, and come back." Don went to the front porch.

"Let's have some uh...broiled chicken breast" Alan said lamely and went to the kitchen to prepare them.

At dinner, Charlie thought about his mother again. Eventually Alan had to go to his bookclub, and so it was just Don and the mathematician.

"Don..." Charlie began suddenly. "What would you do if you were a married woman who had a child and your husband wasn't the father?"

"I'd pinch myself" Don retorted "You already asked me this!"

"I asked if you would lie toa child about his parentage, assuming you were his father" Charlie corrected his brother.

"I'd think about my kid first..." Don reluctantly answered.

Charlie prodded his brother."Which means what? lying? telling the truth?"

"I'd worry about how telling the truth would hurt my kid and maybe screw up the relationship he had with my husband" Don decided to answer, hoping to mabye get Charlie to see their mother's point of view. "Who has been like a father figure to him"

"Wouldn't you worry about your kid finding out from someone else as an adult?"

"Only me, my husband, and my ex boyfriend knows about the affair I had" Don pointed out, finding this conversation surreal.

"Doesn't your child deserve to know the truth?"

Don sipped his beer "It's not that simple. My husband did a lot by forgiving me. Having my chid's biological father in our lives could crack the peace that we've worked so hard to achieve."

This gave Charlie food for thought. Margaret lied for what she perceived to be the good of the family.Don had made some good points. Soon, the agent was called back to work, leaving Charlie to think about things.

TBC


	60. Chapter 99

"You wanted me to have a normal family life" Charlie told his mother's wedding picture."That was your priority before anything else..You wanted me to have a close relationship with Don and Dad." Impulsivly, Charlie decided to call his brother.

"Eppes?"

"If you had known about Marc and Dawn when we were kids, would you have uh...felt differently about me?"

"Why Would I?"

"You know...mom was always saying that you were the only brother I had..." Charlie began

"I am your only **big** brother, buddy" Don reminded Charlie. It was true. Charlie could have had ten older brothers, but Don would still feel protective over him.

"Oh yeah..." Charlie smiled.

"I'm sorry, Chuck,but I gotta go" Don apologized. Megan seemed to have something urgent to say to him.

"Okay" the brothers hung up. Megan briefed Don on something important, and they went on with their work.

Charlie continued to talk to his mother's picture."Don't get me wrong, I'm still very hurt, and betrayed by what you did! You also lied to Dad and Don!"

With that, he decided to go for a ride on his bike to clear his head. The evening was nippy, but that soon changed as hisbody warmed up from the exercise. After a while, Charlie scolded himself for not wearing bright clothing. His dark grey shirt was not a good fashionchoice for someone riding at night. Thankfully, herode in anice suburban neighborhood.Abruptly,with a bang, and a screeching of tires, a car hit him.Three collegeof college kids ran out of their cars and ran to see what happened to the pedestrian they ran over.

"Oh my God! You ran over my prof!" a woman, named Sarah shouted. The headlights highlighted Charlie's face. The young woman was horrified! Professor Eppes was such a great teacher, and so willing to help undergraduates.

"You bastard!" a stoned young man added. He was a fan of South Park.

"Shut up!" the driver, named Tom snapped at his friend.

Sarah called the ambulance, and cursed herself for not taking that CPR class with her sister during summer break.

Tom smartly put a mirror over Charlie's mouth for a minute, and to his relief, it was clouded. This meant that the professor was breathing.

"He's breathing!"

Sarah exclaimed "That's a relief!"

Charlie vaguely heard what they were saying as if he were watching television while half asleep. He noticed that two of the voices were male,while one was female. They all sounded panickly, at least two of them did. Damn! He was in pain! Then, he started to dream about his mother.

TBC

Author's note: I'm finishing this story in about one or two chapters.


	61. Chapter 100

_Margaret was sitting in the dining room, looking radiant and healthy. Charlie went to join her. _

_"Why didn't you tell me?" he demanded. "Wouldn't you have wanted to know?"_

_"You ask that because you've never been a parent" she said simply. "I didn't see the good in brining him into your life. You had dad and Don."_

_"You just wanted to forget about your mistake!" Charlie shook his head._

_"My mistakes will never be forgotten, but remember this, never for one second thought of you as one of them" she put a hand on his shoulder._

_"I know that now, but I'm still feeling betrayed, Mom" _

_"I realize that" she said somberly._

Before he could say more, Charlie found himself in a hospital bed, not knowing why he was there.

"Charlie?" Don gently asked. The professor still felt disoriented as he gingerly tried to get up.

"What happened?"

"You don't remember?" Don sounded calm,but this worried him.

"Not really. The last thing I remember, I was biking" Charlie shook his head. Just then, Alan woke up.

"You got run over by some students then one of them called nine one one." Don explained.

"Charlie? You're awake?" Alan smiled with hope.

"Yeah..I guess" Charlie tried to sit up again. "How long was I out?"

"Two days." Alan answered, as Charlie felt the bandages on his head and other parts of his body.

"Doc says that your injuries weren't that bad." Don said.

"Okay" Charlie nodded.

After spending a few days in the hospital, Charlie was released. Alan wanted him to stay home a few days, but Charlie insisted that he was fine.

Months and many therapy sessions later, he had another dream about his mother.

_"I forgive you mom" he told her on a sunny day,near the Koi pond." It had taken him a while to get to this point. It didn't mean that he did not object to withwhat Margaret had done, but his love for her hadn't abated._

_"Thank you" she said simply._

_"I love you, mom" he said suddenly, though the man wasn't the kind to say such things aloud._

_"I love you, too"_

_With that, the two silently watched the koi._

The End.


End file.
